Eva: Light and Water
by soul.assassin.547
Summary: SEELE sent Kaworu Nagisa to Tokyo-3 as its envoy for NERV, but as soon as he arrives he becomes involved, facing the challenge of trying to change the people around him, especially the Children. Above all, sometimes prophecies aren't carved in stone.
1. The Assignment

_**Spoiler Warning:** This fanfic assumes that you have watched all 26 episodes of Evangelion (Remake / Director's Cut / Platinum versions), read the manga, plus watched End of Eva (EoE). For those who haven't, try to purchase/rent and watch/read first. Much thanks._

_**Reader Advisory:** The following fanfic contains strong coarse language, violence, and suggestive scenes that may be suitable only for young adult readers from age 16 and above. Reader discretion is advised.  
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**_Disclaimer: _**_Evangelion is the property of Studio Gainax/Khara, and distributed in the United States (and elsewhere) by ADVFilms/Section23 (EvaTV), Manga Entertainment (EoE), Viz Publications (the manga adaptation) and Funimation (NME/Rebuild); other products mentioned in this fanfiction are the properties of their respective companies. This fanfiction is written with the non-profit use of characters, story and settings for entertainment purposes.  
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* * *

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_"Yes. This is her birthplace... Light and Water, makes up Rei's unfathomable personality  
and thus reflects the atmosphere and the very nature of this place..."  
_- **Doctor Ritsuko Akagi**

* * *

It was raining incessantly as the darkening storm raged over the German city of Dresden. The heavy deluge assaulted the rooftops as well as the umbrellas of its citizens. Thunder and lightning roared and flashed in the sky above, sending frightened little children scurrying to their mothers' laps and arms, sheltered in their homes all over the city.

The city has seen its share of history, including World War Two, when the city's once beautiful historical buildings and treasures were destroyed by Allied incendiaries to punish the Nazis. It was rebuilt, but endured the communist takeover when it became part of the eastern half of Germany. Only after reunification did a degree of prosperity allowed Dresden to regain some of its former glory.

But ten kilometers away from this city of heavy industry, in the deep forest and buried beneath the earth and solid rock about 600 meters below, it was the figurative calm before the storm.

The storm of what SEELE would soon bring to NERV and its wayward leader.

* * *

A young man was standing in the middle of a circle formed by twelve monoliths, not daring to move an inch in deference to his hosts. Behind him was a simple folding chair to sit on, once ordered to do so. He was their best ace for the final show, as Keel Lorenz looked upon him with great interest behind his imposing black monolith.

"We are pleased to meet you, Kaworu Nagisa. Please be seated," SEELE 01 spoke out to the young man, who nodded rather pleasantly as he sat down on the chair. Fifteen years old, standing five-foot four and weighing less than a hundred pounds, Kaworu Nagisa had a mess of gray hair, bone-white skin and a slim frame of a body. However, his eyes, completely red and unblinking, matched the sharp intellect and philosophical wisdom that he possessed. Along with that demeanor, he was also very serene and understanding in attitude.

"Today is the day that you are ready to do something important for us. You have been prepared for this for so long as planned by the Committee. We have entrusted to you everything, even our hopes for bringing about the success of the Plan," Lorenz informed him.

Kaworu nodded silently, allowing Lorenz to continue to explain.

"You are assigned as the Fifth Children, to replace the Second Children because of unfortunate circumstances involving her, with the psychological attack by the 15th Angel. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir. I understand," Kaworu agreed.

"Indeed, the timing is impeccable."

"If you have any doubts, I have no objections about being involved in this enterprise. In fact, I am not afraid to accomplish my duty, even if it's my life at stake. I simply have to consider the wishes of my brethren, and I finally understand that I have been preordained to correct the errors of many millennia."

"That is right," Keel agreed. "At this moment, they are at their weakest. They are barely able to win, and all is left for us is to gain an advantage."

Kaworu nodded. "When I shall go, sir?"

"You will go at two in the morning, tomorrow, with an express flight to Tokyo-3. We have given you an entire week as well to complete your role. Now, is that clear?" Lorenz questioned.

Kaworu Nagisa stood up in attention and answered. "That will be done, sir."

"Finally, should you encounter any difficulty while you are there, you may request for assistance. Already we have prepared you some information concerning NERV and the Children."

Satisfied, Lorenz nodded in agreement with his words. "Very well, then. Do not fail us in any way, and accomplish all the objectives required of this organization. We will be completely satisfied once you have done your job dutifully. We bid you good luck, Mister Nagisa. You're dismissed for the day."

Kaworu nodded. "Thank you, sir. I will do my best," he answered before he pivoted and walked away.

* * *

After Kaworu left their gaze as he disappeared from the room, the twelve monoliths discussed what will be done with Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari and the organization under his command.

"In comparing his past actions to the directives the Committee has assigned him, we can clearly see that Ikari is defying us," SEELE 06 intoned.

"Indeed, I am not pleased with his deviance from the scenario. Just look at his loss of the Lance against the 15th Angel," SEELE 03 seconded.

"I agree. He has not been following the Committee's aims since the beginning, it would seem," SEELE 08 added. "We cannot tolerate his tendency of making decisions inimical to us."

"These problems with Ikari would be enough. No more complaints about him any further from the each of you, gentlemen. We already know that he is clearly betraying our trust by using our plans for his own aims," SEELE 01 interrupted, thus causing them to shut up.

Satisfied with the silence around him, SEELE 01 continued. "Very well, gentlemen. As part of our solution to accelerate our timetable, and we have the upper hand, with our resources ready to be utilized, it is time for the Final Messenger to bring the scenario to its next step as predicted in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls. Once his task is complete, we will be free to begin the Red Earth Purification Ceremony and bring about the Complementation of Man."

"Should our envoy fail, there will be no other choice for us but to exact punishment upon them," he concluded.

The rest of the Committee echoed their agreement unanimously. "So be it, for the Complementation of Man!"

And all the monoliths disappeared in unison, adjourning the meeting of the ancients.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 01: THE ASSIGNMENT  
by soulassassin547

* * *

In the cover of the morning darkness, a convoy of unmarked, black-painted vehicles passed through the heavily-guarded gates of a nondescript military airbase, of Cold War Soviet vintage, twenty kilometers away from Dresden. They sped across the wide expanse of the tarmac towards a huge hangar big enough to accommodate a Boeing Seven Century hypersonic transport plane, which was parked inside. It was painted white with the letters "United Nations" emblazoned along its length.

The hangar's massive doors parted to let in the convoy, before it closed together away from prying eyes once the vehicles were all inside.

Among the vehicles in the convoy, a heavily-armored Mercedes-Benz SUV stopped in front of the huge, sleek jet transport and its black-fatigue-clad occupants came out from the front doors. Armed with submachine guns, one of the disembarked men opened the rear passenger door to let Kaworu out.

Clutching his black duffel bag and an aluminum briefcase in both hands, Kaworu dutifully stepped out of the SUV and glanced briefly at the plane, before he walked up the stairs leading up to the hatch, escorted by a pair of severe, black-suited men.

As he navigated the aisles to his assigned seat, Kaworu wondered why they would give him an airplane of this size just to ferry him to Japan. _Curious_, he mused. _Their gratitude must be excessive for me, but I must respect my guardian's wishes._

_What is important is that they needed this to be done, and I made my choice._

Now seated comfortably, Kaworu finally let himself rest as the sleek plane started up its powerful engines, moving away and out of the hangar towards the runway.

"Please buckle up your seatbelts. We will be flying out in a minute," the pilot announced over the intercom. Obediently Kaworu fastened his seatbelt and waited for the plane to take off.

After a minute or so of talking with the control tower, and lining with the runway, the pilot nudged the throttle to full blast, giving full power to the six General-Electric scramjets that allowed the plane to fly faster than the speed of sound as it quickly gained altitude over the German countryside, heading eastwards.

About two hours later and eight miles above the Earth in the stratosphere, Kaworu woke up from his slumber, and decided that he must have something to drink. He promptly asked permission from one of the armed agents as he walked up to them.

"What is it?" the agent asked, after putting down an issue of _Time_ he was reading.

"I would like to prepare tea for myself," Kaworu said.

The agent nodded. "No problem. The galley kitchen's up ahead," he answered, thumbing up Kaworu's way.

"Thank you," Kaworu said, before he walked through the aisle all the way to the small kitchen.

While he prepared a cup of oolong tea on the Formica counter, he thought of what the Children looked like, as Keel explained once that all Evangelion pilots are required to be at least fourteen years of age, and a selection board was formed on purpose to seek and select potential candidates from any place on the planet.

_I think they must be like me. No, maybe not. They are still frail humans. Lilim, after all, with their courage and fears, their individual loves and hates, despite everything that has been thrown at them. It would be good to find out who they are,_ he reflected.

Going back to his seat with his tea, Kaworu unlatched and folded out the table in front of him, placed the teacup in a holder, lit up the overhead reading lamp above him.

But just about he was to take the first sip of his tea and get one of his favorite books, the _Divine Comedy_ of Dante Alighieri, from his briefcase, another agent came up to Kaworu, carrying a bulky manila envelope.

"Pardon me?" Kaworu spoke, putting down his tea back into the holder.

"They wanted to give this to you," the older man answered as he handed over to Kaworu the envelope, placing it on top of the tray.

Kaworu nodded. "Thank you, sir," he whispered.

"It's my pleasure," the agent replied as he walked back into his place at the back of the plane.

Taking a breath, Kaworu opened the envelope, which it turned out to be carrying five folders, one folder for each item of importance:

_NERV: The Organization and its Aims_  
_The Geofront_  
_The Evas (Unit-00 / Prototype Model to Unit-04 / Production Model)_  
_Historical Background_  
_Personnel Profile Dossiers_

Each folder had a red stamping with the words "TOP SECRET. Destroy after Reading".

Taking out the first file from the envelope, Kaworu cracked open its pages to read, methodically committing the vital information to memory without jotting it down.

Halfway with the third and fourth folder after two hours, with his understanding of the extensive technical details on the Evas, and NERV's general history, Kaworu got off his seat to make more tea in the kitchen with soda crackers to munch on, and then go back again to his business. Kaworu paused only to grab a pair of headphones to listen to some jazz music piped in, more precisely, with the music of Louis Armstrong. He had acquired a taste for music while being tutored on basic human culture, including entertainment and the arts.

An hour of that lively baritone from Armstrong had passed before Kaworu finally came up to the last folder, all containing the personal backgrounds of vital NERV members, complete with surveillance photos.

As he read, one page outlined the command structure, starting from Supreme Commander Ikari, to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, to Doctor Akagi and Major Katsuragi, to the bridge personnel, down to the Children. Without losing one figment of a fact about these characters, he memorized all of it until he got to the pages about the Children.

_**The Children**_

_1. Rei Ayanami_  
_2. Asuka Langley Souryu (x)_  
_3. Shinji Ikari_  
_4. Toji Suzuhara (x)_

_(x) Recent intel update. See accompanying documents._

_This will be very interesting_, Kaworu mused as he turned one page away, to reveal several surveillance pictures of Rei Ayanami, which showed her in several shots, leaving the ancient apartment of hers after breakfast, heading either to school or to the Geofront.

Her appearance had taken Kaworu aback, blinking.

Putting down that picture on the table, Kaworu began reading the rest of the Ayanami file, which he found to be wanting in content, with only four scant paragraphs, the last denoting what happened to her and Eva-00, after facing off with the Angel of the Womb.

_It's quite a pity that there's little about Rei. It would be better off to meet her face to face instead of these pieces of paper that tells me nothing,_ he told himself.

Kaworu plowed through the rest of the dossier, with the miserable background stories about the Second and the Third Children, as well as the uneventful early retirement given to Suzuhara after his near-death encounter, when the infected Unit-03 was slaughtered down by the infamous Test Type Unit-01.

With considerable interest, he stared at Rei's full figure in one of the pictures, dressed up in her customary junior-high school uniform and carrying a black leather school briefcase, showing her entering the school gates.

Kaworu sighed, wondering what kind of girl Rei Ayanami was. Judging from her passive face she displayed in the surveillance pictures, he figured out that she was still a living, breathing body, yet possessing what he believed was a troubled soul.

Out of his memory, he recalled Goethe's Faust as he pocketed the picture into his jacket: _"Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast."_

Two minutes later, the burnt remains of the secret documents trailed away from the supersonic plane, as it began to make its approach for Odawara International Airport, near Tokyo-3.

* * *

Still beyond Kaworu's grasp, Rei Ayanami was preparing herself for her assigned tasks down at the Geofront this early morning.

Remembering nothing much of what happened to her predecessor, who killed herself along with Unit-00 in an explosion that took out half of Tokyo-3, Rei stepped out of the shower, clad in a towel, and walked to her bed. Laid out on the bed were her only clothes she wore, which was the school uniform ensemble and her white underwear. As for her plugsuit, it would be of no use anymore.

Rei unfurled her towel from her body, before she began to put on her underwear, panties first and that C-size bra she snapped around her chest.

As she went about dressing herself, Rei thought of her assigned tasks she had to do for today. Even now, she was always driven with a sense of purpose and duty, despite that there was no Eva to pilot, and no Dummy Plug for which she radiated her soul to her now-destroyed clones.

_I still have a purpose, no matter what happens,_ she reminded herself.

At the moment, she knew that Ritsuko Akagi was spending her time in the Stockade, for destroying Rei's clones in the Dummy Plug Plant, while Asuka Langley Souryu was still in the infirmary, being treated for psychological trauma a week after the 15th Angel attacked her.

Rei also knew that her classmates had to evacuate the devastated city and the surrounding Hakone area, leaving nobody but core NERV personnel as its only inhabitants.

As for Shinji and Misato, she saw them yesterday, both of them somewhat distraught with what tragically happened to the others. It was also sad to know for Misato that Ryoji Kaji was murdered in cold blood three weeks ago, probably betrayed by an insider, while Shinji was unhappy to see Rei not able to remember anything about her last battle when he visited her at the infirmary a few days back.

Perfectly dressed now, Rei went to her kitchen to prepare her austere breakfast of toast and garden salad, washed down with green tea, before going back to her bed where she ate.

While eating, Rei checked a piece of paper that listed today's activities. _Nothing much to do_, she thought, shaking her head, seeing that there was only one thing on that activity schedule that required her attention.

Finally sated, Rei got up on her feet and went out to the world, locking the door to her dwelling first before she left.

* * *

Walking alone, Rei could only look at the extent of destruction that was sordidly laid out across the city. Only a shallow crater lake remained, in place of the grandiose complex of tall buildings that once stood there. Elsewhere there were uprooted trees, bent traffic signs and huge piles of ferroconcrete and rock. It was more of a war zone.

Unmindful of the billowing dust from the road, Rei noticed the remnants of life dotting the cityscape, such as the trees ringing the hillside and planted along the sidewalk, as well as the birds flying in the sky.

Finally, Rei approached the Geofront's gates, where a guard was standing there, ready to receive her.

"May I take your identification, please," the sentry reminded her.

Dutifully, Rei took out her ID card and showed it to him. In approval, he let her go inside as she swiped the card in the reader installed into the turnstile, which allowed her through.

As she went to the line of elevators leading down to Headquarters, Rei glanced at her ID card and stared at it. There, her name, rank and serial number, plus her picture, all of it printed on that single piece of plastic, causing Rei to pause in her tracks and reflect hard.

_Why am I here? Why am I still alive? Alive for what... and for whom I live for?_ She doubted herself, wondering about how and why she was still existing in this world.

For a minute she stood there, pondering about herself before Rei realized that she still had a job to do down below.

Just to meet with Commander Ikari in his office, on top of the pyramidal Headquarters building.

* * *

"Good Morning, Commander," Rei greeted Gendo Ikari once they met in the office, heavily decorated with the reproduction of the Athanasius Kirchner Sephirotic System diagram on the ceiling, and a bubble chamber etching on the floor, while the huge bay windows offered a full view of the Geofront's expanse. Normally this sanctum sanctorum was bare, save for the Commander's desk, but for the purposes of today's upcoming meeting with the Fifth Children there were two tube-frame folding seats and a coffee table. The floor space alone was done on purpose to intimidate some guests, and to acknowledge Gendo's immense authority as the Commander of NERV.

Rei bowed deeply in respect before him.

"Good Morning, Rei. I am very glad to see you again. Please, have a seat," Gendo answered as he fondly looked at her.

Of all the people Gendo encountered, he could absolutely count on Rei to entrust everything he knew and planned, other than Sub-Commander Kouzou Fuyutsuki, and by extension the only person he can show his emotions in private, so he smiled a little at her.

"Thank you, sir," Rei replied before she took her seat facing the Commander.

"Today, somebody very important would be arriving here as we speak," he informed.

Rei nodded in agreement as the Commander rose up from his seat and walked towards her with a folder in hand.

"Because of the Second Children's psychological trauma, it is necessary that we must have a good replacement for her. Fortunately, we have selected our new candidate for this role, and he's also from Germany," Gendo continued, before he handed to Rei a folder.

She opened the folder to find a picture of Kaworu, his pale face with a Zen-like grin greeting her. Beneath his picture was his very short background information, which was limited to only two paragraphs of printed text. Only his date of birth was the most obvious—September 13, 2000—which was the same day the Second Impact nearly destroyed the human race.

Certainly, from the looks of Kaworu's appearance, he closely resembled Rei in some aspects, especially with his cerise eyes, so it was understandable that Rei was slightly taken aback with his appearance.

_He is the Fifth Children? He looks like me... He is the same as with me,_ she thought, allowing the shock to register inwardly, and absolutely not on her face for Gendo to see.

As if he was reading her mind, Gendo explained, "You don't have to worry. Kaworu Nagisa will be here for our purposes and for good reasons, Rei, so that there will be no deviation from what the Scrolls say. Do you have any other questions about the Fifth Children?"

At that point, Rei looked up at Gendo simply shook her head.

Satisfied with her wordless response, Gendo nodded. "Very well, then. With nothing to stop us, we will be reaching our ultimate objective soon enough. Is it okay for you?"

"Yes, Commander. I always will be bound by my duty to serve as you require," Rei answered.

Gendo nodded again, satisfied with her obedience. The last time she sacrificed herself, it was out of necessity and loyalty, but more importantly her behavior was altered over the last few months since his son's arrival. She was supposed to interact, but never to be affected by human activity.

Today, Rei's purity was enough for him to look forward to his next objective, yet lately a series of events nearly derailed his plans. Privately he was infuriated when Ritsuko destroyed one of his long-running pet projects, the Dummy Plug program, out of hatred; and then the impetuous Second Children was attacked by an Angel before suffering a severe case of depression leading to a suicide attempt.

Now he heard that his son is distraught at the moment, but he did not saw his Shinji as his flesh and blood, but only as a tool like others he manipulated to acquire what he truly wanted.

Gendo Ikari was a driven man, determined to defy fate, and Rei Ayanami was the last card in his sleeve.

* * *

By the time the supersonic plane touched down on the runway of Odawara International Airport, and then taxied near the group of hangars, a large number of heavily-armored vehicles were waiting to receive Kaworu as the plane came to a halt.

Coming out of the aircraft's hatch, Kaworu glanced around his surroundings; before he looked down to see his escorts from Section Two waiting to protect him. Two dozen more of these NERV people, all dressed in Kevlar vests, were standing guard and toting submachine guns, as they surrounded the plane and the convoy vehicles.

Kaworu let one of the Section Two agents carry his two pieces of luggage. "Place it in the back," he commanded.

"Okay," the beefy-looking agent answered, as he carefully placed the duffel bag and the briefcase at the back of the black, armored NERV-issued Chevrolet Suburban, before Kaworu and the other agents boarded in and the convoy quickly rolled out.

On their way through Route 1, Kaworu watched to see the scenery change, from a series of concrete tunnels and grassy hills, to reveal the devastated city of Tokyo-3 itself. Indeed, there was little left in the center of the city, which was now a lake ringed by ruins.

_Ah, how disappointing it looks for a city of this size, with so much destruction. But it's never a city in the truest sense of the word, but more of a fortress of deception,_ Kaworu reflected.

_Then what are they hiding inside? I'll have to see for myself, as it'll be futile for the Lilim to conceal it._

One of the Section Two agents in the front seat spoke out, removing Kaworu from his reverie. "I have something to give to you. It's a message from Commander Ikari," he informed as he handed to Kaworu an envelope.

"Thank you," Kaworu answered, before he opened the envelope containing a letter, which was a simple message of welcome.

_Indeed,_ Kaworu told himself as he pocketed the envelope into his jacket._ He's waiting for me to do what's in the Scrolls._


	2. At First Sight

Five kilometers away from the Geofront, Misato Katsuragi was spending her time at a roadside eatery after finishing her early lunch, patiently sitting at her table, waiting for someone coming up from Headquarters. The leftovers of her lunch were still before her on the table, ready to be taken away by a passing waitress.

The nearby jukebox was playing Hikaru Utada's "Addicted to You", the deceivingly cheerful funky beats belying the love-troubled heroine's dilemma intertwined into its lyrics:

_There is no need to meet you everyday  
I've got so many things to do  
There is no need to talk with you everyday  
I am annoyed with so many phone bills  
No love lasts forever  
Worrying about our relationship deepens my love  
I never talk about our love to anyone  
Because I am not a child  
This road won't last forever  
When it ends we should go our own separate ways..._

As she listened to the lyrics closely, Misato sighed sadly, when heart-wrenching memories of Ryoji Kaji flooded into her mind, remembering the very last phone call he made to her answering machine shortly before he was murdered.

_It is a funny story  
Even though I'm hurt, I'm back for more  
I am addicted to you...  
Just because I can't meet you  
Doesn't mean I will die  
I understand our circumstances_

Or the tempestuous moment they shared on the bed not so long ago. She could also recall the squeaking sound of the electric fan that cooled them down in the heat of that night.

_Even so, I am still dying to meet you  
I want to meet you everyday  
I don't know what to do with this feeling  
I want to be mature enough to deal with my own feelings  
But it takes time for that to happen  
Oh baby... Oh baby...  
I am addicted to you..._

As if she was desperately looking for refuge against the inner pain of her heart, Misato briefly held onto her silver pendant, a wrought cross that was a reminder of her father and the dark past.

_There is no reason to restrict each other  
We do not need to pretend that we are mature  
At night, he doesn't answer his phone,  
Instead his answering machine does  
I want to call him to hear his message anyway_

At the mere, hurting mention of the words "answering machine," Misato fought herself not to burst into tears, as she pinched the bridge of her nose hard. She also did not want to recall the final report on Kaji's murder.

_I'm in love with you  
I know you want me too  
I don't say "I love you" not because I cannot say it..._

Again, Misato picked up her half-full can of Yebisu, and took a sip, as if the act was enough to let the rich malt beer dissipate her other worries, most especially the suffering Children.

"Damn," she muttered, wondering why, oh, God, why all of these bad things have happened to her charges.

_It's a sad story  
Whenever you doubt my love, I love you more  
I may be addicted to you  
Everyone's excuse for not saying "I love you" is the same  
Everyone thinks that they need reasons..._

Misato swore to herself that she could still feel Kaji's tender kiss on her lips on their way home...

_Even so, I am still dying to meet you  
I want to meet you everyday  
Can I tell you this feeling?  
Hold me rather than kiss me  
Don't stop without telling me  
Oh baby... Oh baby...  
I may be addicted to you..._

"Oh... Hi there," Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga greeted her, as he emerged from the crowd of eatery patrons. He was still wearing his duty khaki-colored uniform.

Misato blinked, pulled back to reality.

"Sorry, I got myself late, Major. I had to fix a few papers before going," Hyuga explained.

"Thank God, you're a lifesaver," Misato said, while the younger officer took his seat opposite hers. "Tell me, what going on for today?" she whispered.

Makoto narrowed his eyes and prepared to answer her. He slowly leaned himself across the table and told her in a low voice, "Major, I'm afraid that this place might not be right enough for us to discuss this. It's too damned sensitive."

He was worried about unwanted surveillance by half a dozen intelligence apparatuses plying this city, either locals or hostile governments and organizations.

Taking a moment to ponder, Misato realized that this could be anything, more likely some bad news. "Okay," she finally decided. "Why don't we try taking my ride?"

At first Makoto blinked, doubting whether he could withstand his superior's nerve-racking driving skills, but after a while he reluctantly agreed. "Well, yes. Let's go and cruise instead, Major."

Both of them stood up and left the eatery, heading for the blue Renault Alpine sports car parked outside by the roadside curb.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 02: AT FIRST SIGHT  
by soulassassin547

* * *

A few minutes later, while driving on Circumferential Route 38 around the rim of Lake Ashinoko, Misato had her hands on the leather steering wheel and her eyes glancing briefly at the rear-view mirror for anything suspicious.

Makoto finally spoke out, breaking the silence. "I'm sorry about the Children for the past few weeks, Major," he commented. "Especially with what happened to Asuka and Rei these days, and then Shinji."

With an air of regret, Misato sighed. "Yeah, one Angel for each of them hitting their weakest point," she answered, before she remembered the troubled looks of her charges, each of them confined in the infirmary after every brutal attack.

"I can see it in their faces. It's damned psychological," she added.

"Yes. It seems that these attacks are targeted against their minds instead of the Evas," he assessed.

"What else have we got down there?" Misato queried, wanting to know more.

"We've just got a new candidate. A new pilot," Makoto informed.

"What?" Misato blurted aloud, taken aback.

"His name's Kaworu Nagisa and he just came in today a few hours ago, ready to replace Asuka," he explained.

Misato shook her head, almost angry. "Oh, damn, they didn't inform me about this! Where the heck he came from, anyway?"

"Nagisa came in from Germany," he answered. "It was unexpected."

Accepting that fact, as well as connecting Germany with SEELE, Misato nodded. "So we're going to deal with another enigma coming from the Committee, isn't it?"

In agreement and with his frustration, Makoto sighed. "Yeah, the first crazy thing I got about him was a blank piece of paper, just like Rei. No personal data, no history, nothing at all. Just a birth date."

"Bloody hell," she muttered. _Great, the Commander finally has an expendable boy for his to use, except that this Nagisa could be anything_, she reflected.

"So I had no choice but to sneak into the Intelligence Division, and I got this," he spoke, before he pulled out a USB flash drive and handed it over to her.

"That's all?" Misato questioned as she took the flash drive and pocketed it.

Makoto nodded. "All of it is in that stick, but I'm still sniffing after whatever I can come up with anything Nagisa written on it."

Concerned about her aide's well-being, Misato shot Makoto a worried glance. "Look, Makoto, you're practically putting your neck on the line with what you're doing for me," she commented. "Lately things aren't working out for us."

Makoto smiled. "Exactly, Major. It's worth the hazards I'm taking, and as for the Doctor, I'm also sorry to know that she's in the Stockade," he added. "Is it true she actually did steal some operational funds?"

Misato scowled a bit, unhappy to hear what went wrong with Ritsuko after she destroyed the Rei clones, earning Gendo's ire in the process.

_I can't tell you exactly why, _Misato thought, shaking her head.

"Okay, I get you. But there's one thing we have to do for now," she spoke. "We have to grill this Nagisa through tests to see what capabilities he has, and how far he can go."

"No problem, Major. He's already scheduled for that session later on."

"Excellent. And yes, I have a very, very bad feeling about Nagisa," Misato told him with an air of suspicion, as their car entered the long tunnel to the car train station, which, from there led down to the Geofront. "He's a message, considering the kanji in his surname."

"What does it mean?" Makoto asked.

"Nagisa could be any message the Committee wants us to decode. We'll find out what he really is and once we know what poker school we're in, God help us," Misato concluded, before she made the car's final turn to her parking space on the linear train and stopped there, tire clamps engaged.

"I want to meet this little stranger. He's interesting enough to arouse our suspicions," she added as she switched off the ignition and pulled up the hand brake, before the train lurched downwards.

* * *

In the bachelor quarters, sited somewhere in the labyrinth of the Geofront, the very small bedroom allocated to Kaworu measured about twelve feet on each side, making it a rather tight space. In that room, there was a desk with a study lamp, a bed that took the most space, a television and a stereo, and enough cabinet space for his clothes and shelving for his books.

_It'll be okay, even if this room is so small_, he reflected, before the ashen-haired young man placed his duffel bag and the briefcase on the bed, and set about arranging his things.

Kaworu also took out some of his books from the metal briefcase, and put them on the shelves. With methodical thoroughness, he arranged his stuff in the cabinet and the shelves until there was no crease or anything dangling to show.

_Perfect_, he nicely told himself.

Satisfied, Kaworu checked his schedule for the day. Indeed, within five minutes Commander Ikari expected to meet him, so he changed to his looser attire, a white, buttoned-up shirt over a yellow t-shirt, black pants and white sneakers. Checking his appearance on the mirror, Kaworu now figured that it would be acceptable to the Commander, even if his hair was still a grayish mess to behold.

Just as he was about to leave, one of the Section Two agents came up to his door, waiting for him to come out.

"Are you ready?" the agent asked Kaworu, who opened the door.

The young man nodded. "Yes, and I am expected by the Commander to see him."

Wordlessly, they set off in the direction of the Supreme Commander's office.

* * *

Along the way, while being escorted by the agents flanking him, Kaworu took note of the corridors and passageways leading to one place or another in the massive complex. Despite the visible signboards telling the visitor where to go, Kaworu could not help but gently shake his head.

_It's too easy to get lost_, he thought. _Maybe somehow there's a little guidebook so that I can get around easily._

The journey was obviously taking them a little long to navigate. They boarded some elevators, rode on the escalators, and, at one point, had to ask a clerk where to get to the 26th level floor.

Finally, they came up to a pair of ornately designed doors, which parted for Kaworu to enter Gendo Ikari's throne room.

Framed by the bay windows showing the Geofront's expanse, the Commander was behind his desk as he sat on a high-backed chair. His hands were also propped in front of his face, a perennial habit of the Commander. Kaworu noticed the Sephirotic diagram etched impeccably on the ceiling and a bubble chamber etching on the floor, to emphasize its owner's seemingly obsessive penchant for geometric perfection and diagrammatic methodology in carrying out the Human Instrumentality Project. An example depicting science and religion as opposites yet both valuable.

"Good morning. It is nice to see you," Gendo greeted.

"Good morning, Commander," Kaworu answered.

"Please be seated," Gendo offered, before Kaworu took his own seat, prepared to talk. In the center of the room was an unmarked folder placed on a round coffee table.

"Thank you, Commander," Kaworu answered as he sat down.

Gendo nodded in satisfaction. "Hmmmm. Very well, then. Please take the folder on the table besides you and read it."

Obediently, Kaworu took the folder from the table and read its contents. It contained his work schedule, starting with synchronization and compatibility tests this afternoon, along with combat exercises throughout the week. In addition, there were already some forged documents for his use in the folder, such as required school forms, a birth certificate, a resident certificate and other red-tape paperwork for the tame government bureaucrats to consume. Attached with a paper clip on top of the folder, was a small plastic packet containing his brand-new NERV ID card.

Name, rank and serial number.

"It's your papers, young man. Major Katsuragi will be your commanding officer, but I'm sorry to say that you have to replace the Second Children," Gendo informed.

"What happened to her?" Kaworu asked, blinking.

Gendo answered, not even batting an eye behind his glasses. "She suffered from psychological trauma."

Kaworu nodded in agreement, while noting the Commander's eyes carefully. _He's a cold man, without a doubt, _he told himself. _I wonder how the Lilim could be able to withstand his personality. Perhaps this place is in some way propelled by fear._

"Sir, what is the current status of the Third Children?" Kaworu asked, referring to Shinji.

"I think he will still be good enough for duty, despite the events for the past few days," Gendo said. He had little concern about the other boy's problems.

"I would like to meet him anytime," Kaworu answered. "He must be friendly."

"Yes, he is capable of friendship, and it would be good for you to meet him as part of your duties. Cooperating and getting acquainted with your fellow team member is vital."

"I understand what you mean, sir."

Inwardly, Kaworu shook his head in disappointment, before he decided to get to the Commander's hot button: Rei Ayanami.

"With due respect, sir, how is it going for the First Children?" Kaworu asked, quite interested to see how he would react.

At the mention of Rei's other moniker, Gendo's normally-icy facial expression suddenly softened somewhat. "She is also fine. I would also like to say that she diligently performs all the tasks required."

Again, Kaworu noticed the striking change in the Commander's face. _If true,_ he thought, _the Commander is known as a Svengali of sorts, as the Chairman describes him._

"Well, sir, I am also quite very interested to meet her," Kaworu told him.

Gendo nodded. "Good. You're just in time, and she happens to be coming in right now."

As if on cue, Rei opened both doors and stepped inside. Both men promptly turned their attention and glanced at the expressionless young woman standing attentively, with the doors behind her back.

"Commander?" Rei asked quietly, taken aback with facing Kaworu for the first time in the flesh at the same time.

"Yes?" Gendo answered, fighting himself not to show his emotions as he maintained that business-matters-over-everything-else façade.

"Is he the Fifth Children we had discussed about earlier?" Rei asked, looking at Kaworu.

Gendo nodded. "Well, yes, and I would like you to meet our new candidate, Kaworu Nagisa," he informed, before he turned his attention to Kaworu.

"Mister Nagisa, meet Rei Ayanami. She will also be your teammate in Project E from this point onward," he introduced.

In unison, the First and the Fifth Children bowed deeply in due respect to each other. But Rei blinked as she asked herself, _You are the same as with me... Why are you here?_

"Hello, Rei. I am very happy to see you," Kaworu said.

Rei was still speechless, trying to pick the right words, before she was able to say.

"H... Hello, Nagisa," she reluctantly greeted.

Kaworu was wondering why she was acting like that. _Are you scared of me? I hope you're not feeling so bad._

"How are you? I hope you're okay."

"I... I am fine," Rei answered with considerable difficulty.

Witnessing this nervous exchange of pleasantries, Gendo blinked behind his glasses, but quickly regained his composure by clearing his throat.

"Now that both of you have acquainted with each other briefly," Gendo said, "I will nevertheless observe how well you will work properly as part of this organization. I understand that your combined intelligence and abilities shall be of greater value, and finally with your help it is a matter of time that we may be able to thwart any possible avenues of invasion. Now is that clear?"

Kaworu and Rei nodded. "Yes sir," they answered.

However, before the Commander would continue any further, they all heard the knocking on the door.

"You may come in," Gendo spoke loudly, still hunched behind his desk, with Rei and Kaworu going back to their seats, facing each other as they watched Sub-Commander Kouzou Fuyutsuki enter.

"Oh, it's you, Mister Nagisa. We've been expecting you," Fuyutsuki told Kaworu, who smiled back.

"Of course, sir," Kaworu answered.

"I'm sorry to say this, Children, but can I have a word with the Commander?" Fuyutsuki informed them. "It's just between us."

Both Children nodded wordlessly, before Gendo gestured two of the Children to get up and leave. "Both of you are dismissed. We'll call you in later on," he said.

Rei and Kaworu nodded obediently, with the Fifth Children carrying his newly-forged papers. "Yes, sir," they agreed in unison, before they walked away.

After the albino teenagers left them alone, Fuyutsuki began to talk with his former student.

"So you have no qualms about what happened to the First and the Second Children?" he asked. Lately Fuyutsuki wasn't happy about the recent spate of unfortunate events plaguing NERV.

"That is of no consequence to me. They did their purpose for the Plan," Gendo stated. "I will have the Second Children returned to Germany next week, and she's practically useless. As for the First, without anything to inhibit her, she will still be very helpful."

Beneath his hands-off veneer, Fuyutsuki fumed at the remark. _I don't like the way you're talking about Asuka, Gendo. God, she's still a fragile young woman right now, teetering to the brink of insanity, and you dispose of her like a worn-out rag doll. _

"What about your son. I mean, the Third?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

Gendo snorted. "How long he will able to fulfill his role, but he is still needed for the accomplishment of the Plan," he remarked. "Assuming he does not lose his mind like the Second. This cowardly behavior of his isn't making things easy."

Fuyutsuki scowled and closed his eyes. _The Plan, the Plan, your Plan. You're chasing it with nothing to lose but yourself, and you care for nothing else, not even your only son. And what about Doctor Akagi?_

"Are you still upset with what Akagi did to the Dummy Plugs?" he questioned, changing the subject this time.

Gendo answered him with a cryptic murmur that was either a yes or a no: "Mmmmm."

Fuyutsuki sighed, knowing very well for a long time what it really meant from the tone of that murmur. "So you're disappointed with her, right?"

"Yes, and I have no apologies for sending her to jail. It looks as if she merely helped the Committee get a little closer to Heaven by accelerating their plan before we could even catch up."

"And speaking about the Committee, they're more impatient than ever. We all know how many times you've talked with them for the last six months," Fuyutsuki commented.

Indeed, Gendo Ikari alone had done a number of meetings with the Committee about the Project and its all-important timetable, the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls. It described and enumerated how many Angels would be slain before, whatever it was at its end, could be finally achieved. The Committee had repeatedly asked Gendo how far they have gone, got their answers before they reluctantly gave out more funding for the Project.

"Yes. With sixteen Angels we have taken care of, we'll see what form the Seventeenth Angel will take," Gendo agreed.

Fuyutsuki scowled a little, wondering how the 17th Angel would attack them and when. "I feel that it could be anytime this week. The days are getting shorter as we speak," Fuyutsuki remarked. "As for this Fifth Children, we're doing everything to know about him. He seems to be an unknown entity."

Gendo allowed himself a grunt, realizing that the Committee may have sent them a living Trojan Horse. "These old men, sending in someone we don't know very well," he answered.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "It'll be taken care of. The MAGI is still scanning everything about Nagisa, and it would be very interesting to find out about this young man in the testing sessions later this afternoon. And there's one thing I should say about this, frankly."

"What is it?"

"Both Children looked all too similar," Fuyutsuki observed, before he realized what the Committee has cooked up for NERV. "I think that the Committee is also pursuing what we have done in advance."

Gendo shook his head, somewhat displeased. "These old men," he muttered. "How impatient they are in their quest for Heaven."

_And so we're all doing everything to achieve the impossible, either that of the Committee or yours, at humanity's expense_, Fuyutsuki told Gendo in his mind.

* * *

In the corridor somewhere in the Headquarters building, Rei began to ask why Kaworu was here. She felt very much suspicious about his presence, and it was upsetting.

"Why are you here?" she questioned, staring intently at the young man's eyes.

"I was sent to work here for a good cause, to serve this organization without any questions," he answered.

Rei nodded silently.

"I have noticed something about you since the first minute," Kaworu said, looking into her eyes.

"Yes?" Rei asked, blinking.

"The windows of your soul reveal to me what you're feeling right now.".

Rei was suddenly perplexed. "Pardon me...?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I'm right, Rei. I know that you're troubled."

Rei frowned and more confounded this time. "What?"

However, before Kaworu could continue any further, the Headquarters' PA system cut in with a three-tone ding.

"Kaworu Nagisa, you are requested to contact Doctor Odani of the Medical Examination Section in the Infirmary immediately," the disembodied female voice announced.

Kaworu apologetically smiled at her instead. "It's been very interesting for me talking with you for the first time, but I am sorry, Rei. I must go now," he concluded.

Rei blinked. "But Nagisa..."

"I'll see you later," he beamed and walked away, leaving Rei alone.

_Kaworu Nagisa... Who are you? What are you? _Rei told herself, as she let her hand feel the heavy pounding of her heart.

* * *

Back in his lair, Keel Lorenz was enjoying his cup of tea when an aide entered his office. Before him a bank of flat-panel displays were ablaze with information, news feeds, satellite surveillance feeds, and other plethora of data sources. SEELE had its tentacles on almost everything on the planet, including the United Nations, the world's militaries and corporations, and even the most basic of human needs.

"Pardon me?" the old man asked.

The aide took a breath. "Our source says that he's in place. As expected they're trying to get as much information on him."

Keel shook his head. "They'll never find out who he is, and considering that we have inside moles, we can manipulate their policies as we see fit. If they make a mistake, we have no problem of providing them an interesting penalty. Now you may go, your information will suffice."

Once the aide left, Keel snorted. Personally he enjoyed watching NERV being slowly humiliated bit by bit, while trying to make it more compliant to his agenda.


	3. Suffer the Little Children

In one of the examination rooms in the Infirmary, Doctor Natsumi Odani was giving Kaworu Nagisa a full checkup, as she let her stethoscope touch his bare chest while sitting on the side of the examination table. He was stripped down to his plain white boxers, which made himself a bit comfortable.

In her usual doctor's coat, Natsumi was slim, her dark-brown hair in a bob cut, and she wore a pair of horn-rimmed glasses behind intelligent brown eyes.

"You're healthy at first sight. Just good enough for anything bad that could be thrown at you later on," Natsumi commented. "Okay, Kaworu, can you take a deep breath?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, ma'am," he agreed before he took a breath while Natsumi checked his breathing to see if his respiratory system could also stand up to heavy combat, as he knew he would be subjected to LCL ventilation, in which humans, with the use of fluorocarbons and gases mixed into the liquid, can breathe easily while their bodies are protected from severe G-forces and shock.

"Good. What do you eat for lunch, young man?" she asked.

"I'm a vegetarian, ma'am. I don't allow myself to eat anything with meat in them," Kaworu informed.

Natsumi nodded. "Ah, I see. Just like the First Children, as what Dr. Akagi once told me."

"How did you know?"

"Well, Dr. Akagi is, besides being the chief scientist here, she's also the official physician of the Children, so on most occasions we discuss your teammate's medical conditions. But last week Dr. Akagi was arrested."

Kaworu blinked. "Arrested?"

Natsumi scowled as she sighed. "I'm sorry about the Doctor, Mister Nagisa. Administrative and criminal charges were filed against her because they claimed she stole operational funds and diverted it into her secret bank account," she stated, while she prepared a rubber hammer to check his kneecaps. "Embezzlement, they said. Unfortunately, we never got to know the details because it was covered up so quickly."

Kaworu shook his head, as he let out his knees and crossed them, before Natsumi made several taps on each of them with the hammer. "Does it leaves you having a greater amount of burden?" he asked.

Natsumi Odani nodded as she took away the hammer, placing it on one of the trays. "Yes," she answered, "but I accepted the responsibility, as I had no other choice but to assume some of Doctor Akagi's operational roles. Now I would have wanted to write out your medical records immediately, but I have to obtain a blood sample from you. Is it okay?"

Kaworu gently nodded. "You may do so, Doctor."

Natsumi went to a small table where the lancet was kept on a tray, and prepared it, along with a glass slide for Kaworu's blood sample. Kaworu let her take his hand and carefully she pricked his right forefinger, allowing a drop or two of his blood to patter on the slide. Natsumi then picked up an alcohol-soaked cotton ball from another tray and gave it to Kaworu.

As the young man cleaned the tip of his forefinger with the cotton ball, Kaworu decided to ask one more question about Asuka. "Doctor, I heard that the Second Children is being confined here. Where is she? And is she's okay?"

Natsumi sighed as she wrote down Kaworu's diagnosis report on a clipboard, knowing how bad Asuka really looked in her room, hooked up with a bunch of medical apparatuses. "She's in Room 303, and she's still in pretty bad shape, Mister Nagisa."

"Doctor, did she suffer any physical injuries?" Kaworu queried while he got off his perch and started to dress up, grabbing his clothes from the table.

Natsumi looked away for a while and answered rather apologetically. "Psychological. I'm also sorry about what happened to Miss Souryu. We tried what we could to recover her back, but given the damaging effect the 15th Angel has done to her. I'm afraid that though we may save bodies, it's difficult to salvage minds and souls."

"I understand, ma'am," Kaworu agreed.

"Thank you," Natsumi nodded, before she picked up the clipboard and jotted down her final notes. "Well, Mister Nagisa..."

"Yes?"

"It's been a pleasure to be doing business with you, young man. While we process your medical records for the time being, I'll see you around. Thanks for coming here," Natsumi amiably told him.

They deeply bowed at each other in agreement. "Thank you, Doctor," he answered before he walked out of the room, in the direction of Asuka's room. He looked around for her room after taking the stairs to the upper floor, and found it: Room 303.

Indeed, as Kaworu looked upon Asuka's pale face, the sedated, unhappy red-haired girl was in her bed, surrounded by equipment monitoring her brain impulses and heartbeats. The bed sheet beneath her ashen, unmoving body was rumpled, while several electrodes were stuck onto her head and chest, and the sharp end of an IV drip was embedded onto her left arm. What's more, her right wrist was bandaged, a clear sign that she had tried to commit suicide.

Kaworu shook his head in sympathy, disheartened by Asuka's fate, a poor mirror of her former self. He recalled what he gleaned about Asuka from his file: a child prodigy; a bachelor degree holder at the age of twelve, obtained after graduating from the University of Wilhelmshaven in Germany; a fighting brown-belter in aikido, highly proficient in firearms; and sadly Asuka had a very traumatic childhood, resulting from the suicide of her mother ten years ago, committed while in confinement in a mental hospital, treated for irreversible psychosis.

Before he left, Kaworu whispered to Asuka, despite the distance between them.

"I'll see you again tomorrow, Asuka. Now I have to deal with Shinji later on as well... I'm sorry that Brother Arael has to hand over this test of faith upon you."

As he walked away, Kaworu did not notice the eyeballs moving under Asuka's eyelids while the electroencephalographic (EEG) console began to scream out its high-pitched display in huge pixilated peaks and ebbs.

She was either peacefully dreaming, or drowning helplessly in a never-ending nightmare.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 03: SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN  
by soulassassin547

_

* * *

Somewhere in the hellish depths of her mind, in her drug-induced coma, Asuka was lost in a maze of black-painted doors and darkened corridors, desperately trying to get out. Her heartbeat was racing, she was sweating, her breathing shallow and rapid, and her eyes darted around._

_It was her worst nightmare again._

_"Mama!" she yelled out as she sprinted to one of the doors and opened it, to find a scene of her own self muttering "Chance!"_

_Angrily, Asuka slammed it hard, and ran to another door, only to meet a rag doll strung on its neck._

_"Do you want to die?" the doll asked with a voice like a bloodied razor blade cutting into her being. _

_"No!" Asuka gasped loudly and shut the damned door again, shaking and sweating heavily, the salty rivulets running down on her face and her body._

_"Mama...! Where am I? Where am I? I want to get the hell out of here!" she shouted as she ran up through another darkened corridor and opened the door before her, revealing a part of her memory, of showing Kaji her chest while on the aircraft carrier, in the dead of night, trying to show her overwhelming adulation with the now-dead spy._

_"So look at me!" she loudly told Kaji, who ignored her attempts to get his attention._

_Kaji shook his head instead. "You're still a child."_

_SLAM!_

_A roomful of stuffed, ripped monkey dolls filling to infinity into the darkness._

_SLAM!_

_Out of boredom, she kissed Shinji on the anniversary of his mother's death. Asuka pinched her nose as she shoved her lips into his, not wanting to smell his breath._

_SLAM!_

_The lonely time of misery in her bedroom, on her hands and knees in the darkness, crying._

_SLAM!_

_"I feel sick..." Asuka told herself. She was alone in the bathroom, feeling miserable._

_She was standing naked and was supposed to take a bath... except that she was very upset._

_"I feel fucking sick..." Asuka mumbled profanely before she took a deep breath._

_Thus in one voice she ripped away with her rage:_

_"Who wants to bathe in the same stinking water that Misato and stupid Shinji have bathed in? Who wants to use the washing machine that Misato and stupid Shinji have washed their underwear in?" she yelled._

_Fists shaking, Asuka raised her curse-filled voice even higher. "Who wants to shit on a stinking toilet that Misato and stupid Shinji have used? Who wants to breathe the same damned air as Misato and stupid Shinji?" _

_"I hate Misato! I hate Shinji! I hate Wondergirl even more! I hate Papa! I hate Mama! But most of all I REALLY FUCKING HATE MYSELF!" she yelled out the loudest, her vitriolic hatred echoing around the bathroom._

_Asuka then picked up the plastic ladle and threw it hard into the tiled wall with a resounding crack, shattering it into pieces._

_"Damn... No... I can't take it anymore! Why me? Why me?" she wailed, as she went down onto her knees, crying._

_SLAM!_

_Asuka now spotted the last door, her only way out, and quickly rushed towards it. Blood-red light cracked through the gaps, deceptively giving Asuka the impression that it was the escape she sought for, and opened the door with a hard yank._

_It wasn't. It was really a dead end._

No. Not this door. Not this one... _she nervously told herself, blinking._

_A rag doll stood in her way, smiling like a homicidal maniac and it spoke out._

_"You want to live by yourself? You want to? You don't need everyone? You hate everyone?" the hellish doll sneered at her as it walked on its soft feet._

_Frightened, Asuka fearfully took a step back, not wanting to let this... little creep murder her._

_"No... Please, no..." she whimpered, choking on her tears._

_"Well, then, you hateful young lady... you're such a nice-talking liar!" the reddish-toned doll answered back before it cackled like a demon, its red button eyes flaming with hellfire. _

_At the same time the floor dissolved into a tar pit beneath Asuka's feet._

_"HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME! HELP ME! Please stop it! I don't want to... NOOOOOO!" Asuka screamed as she was violently tugged into the ink-black abyssal pool, darker than the Sea of Dirac._

_Before the darkness swallowed her up completely, Asuka called out Shinji's name._

_"Help me Shinji! I need you...!"_

* * *

Several miles away beyond a nightmare-ridden Asuka, the miserable young man was in Misato's apartment, feeling despondent as he was lying on his bed and listening to his SDAT player, which at the moment was playing a track from My Chemical Romance. The sliding doors leading outside to the balcony were wide open, letting in the breeze to cool him down.

With blank eyes, Shinji Ikari looked at the ceiling above him, while recalling what he saw deep below the Geofront.

_Rei... It may be correct... that impression. My mom's... Rei and my Mom... What's Father doing with them?_ Shinji told himself in his confused thoughts.

_Rei... why are you a clone? Why?_

Slowly, Shinji turned his attention to Asuka's school uniform, still hung up on one corner of the room as it swayed along with the breeze, before he looked at her collection of pictures dotting the desk and the shelves. Without a doubt, she was smiling brightly in every picture, but it never told the viewer the true character beneath that deceiving smile.

He remembered the concern in Hikari's voice as she called him up by phone three days ago, telling him that Asuka ran away from her before the Class Representative woke up.

_Asuka, why did you run away? Why? Are you just as afraid as me? Are you guilty? Are you afraid of losing everything the way I did?_

A tear flowed out of the corner of his eye, as he swallowed hard, feeling guilty for himself. For letting everyone down, the mortal sin for which he had been cast out.

_Why do you hate me? Asuka... if only you can tell me why..._

Shinji closed his teary eyes shut, trying not to think too much.

_God... Asuka, why can't we understand each other...? No... Maybe I have to talk to you... I don't know how I can talk with Rei... she's a blank slate... no, she's a clone..._

At that point, Shinji wiped off his tears with the back of his hand, before he got up on his feet and straightened up himself. He felt resolved enough, wanting to find the answers.

_I have to go. I need to talk to you. I want to understand why... Asuka... Why are you... angry with me?_

While he tied up his sneakers, he let himself breathe a little more to center himself, trying to overcome his painful anxiety.

Finally, Shinji stood up and walked away, the SDAT player still in his pocket. What he had in mind was that he was going down to the Geofront, and try to make amends with the two other young women of his life, unaware that Kaworu was there.

* * *

In the bowels of the Geofront, within the darkness of the Dummy Plug Plant, Rei Ayanami was in the central tank of LCL, thinking about Kaworu. Only the tank she occupied was lit, but the bigger tank surrounding it was filled with pieces of her imitations, all dead as they floated in the orange-red liquid.

She was far more than a blank slate Shinji thought of her, as troubled feelings were rushing through her mind.

_Kaworu, who are you?_ Rei told herself as tiny bubbles slowly wafted upwards.

_Why are you here? Are you here for me?_

_Why did you think that I am what I am? Yes... but I... I could not... I could not remember anything about myself._

There was no memory of the fateful words she uttered on the day her last iteration destroyed Unit-00 on that very cold December morning. All that was left of what she first saw with her new eyes was the space of her sterilized-white room in the infirmary.

Shinji and Misato came to her later that day, telling that she saved him...

But there was also no memory of it, vanished in the ground zero created by her suffering predecessor, the fireball ripping away the concrete and the earth around her Eva and Armisael.

Thus she could not remember anything that emotionally changed her, let alone her name, rank and serial number on her ID card. And then there were her tears on that same day, as they spattered upon the white bed sheet. While she cried, she wondered why she did it.

Out of despair, of pain, of not able to fulfill her death wish?

Instead, Rei lived again, resurrected as the third iteration, and so she cried again in this little corner of her lonely world.

_Why am I here? _she pondered,_ And why I am still living? Why? I want to know the answers... but I could not find them... I feel lost... I am confused... I could not find my way..._

* * *

In the meantime, Kaworu stretched as he fitted himself into his newly-issued plugsuit, spangled with black and blue neoprene and high-strength fibers, before he pressed the two buttons on his wrist. The suit tightened automatically to accommodate the contours of his body.

Satisfied, Kaworu walked out of the locker room with a confident stride towards the cages, knowing very well what he had to do through the sync testing process.

Passing by the Eva cages before going up and ride the entry plug assigned to him, Kaworu glanced up at Asuka's blood-red, four-eyed war machine, moored in its own place, held down by a huge pair of braces against its shoulders, before he let his eyes at the purple Eva standing besides it.

Horned and its face boasting the most fearsome scowl in the world, Eva-01 was a sight to behold. Kaworu could imagine how many Angels it tore apart during its bloody lifetime.

There was no longer any sign of Unit-00, as it was destroyed most recently.

_Yes, they are truly the artificial gods men created for a purpose,_ Kaworu mused, before he went on his way. But something bugged Kaworu's conscience, as he remembered the other vanquished Children.

_I could feel how miserable they are right up to this moment, _he reflected, _trying to find the answers about themselves. _

But out of that contemplation, Kaworu realized that he must do something about this.

_Rei isn't alone with her problems,_ he told himself. _So are Shinji and Asuka. They must be lost somewhere, so badly defeated._

He thought of his duty, but because of his nature Kaworu felt that he must do something right. His sense of sympathy was heightened after he read the dossiers earlier in the day.

_I'm making a choice right now, it's hard to bear to know how hard it is for them to suffer, and that I am supposedly perfect and I have everything. I cannot afford to just stand here as a mute observer of tragedy._

Just as he was about to mount the elevator leading to the plug insertion deck, a technician in his forties chimed in, taking Kaworu out of his reverie.

"So, you're the new kid in town?" the older man asked Kaworu.

"Yes, sir," he nodded, blinking. "I'm ready."

"Okay, you're scheduled for testing today. Let's get you going right up there now," the technician informed.


	4. On the Broken Shore

_This Chapter dedicated in memoriam to BloodyBrit, late founder of The Rose Garden. Life goes on, brother, but we'll miss you, and always there's a Heaven for you._

* * *

"Glad you're here, Major," Kouzou Fuyutsuki greeted as Misato and Makoto walked into the control room.

Beyond the thick plate-glass windows was Eva-02, the huge restraints tightened on its shoulders and ready for entry plug insertion. The crew of technicians that earlier swarmed the humanoid weapon with their tools and equipment had now stepped back to the safety of thick Plexiglas windows and heavily-reinforced concrete walls to watch Kaworu's first compatibility test.

"Well, yes sir. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get the word about the newcomer," Misato admitted.

"Never mind, Major. We're going to test Nagisa now," Fuyutsuki told her. "Hope this time there's nothing to worry about."

"Okay, sir. Let's see what he can show for us today," Misato commented, before Fuyutsuki turned his attention to the technicians.

"Ibuki, start up the systems," Fuyutsuki commanded.

"Yes sir," Ibuki reported as she tapped out the commands on the keyboard.

"Excellent," Fuyutsuki remarked before he glanced up at the video monitor showing Kaworu in the entry plug.

"Are you ready now?" Fuyutsuki asked the young man, who looked more relaxed than tense in the cockpit.

Kaworu sighed for a moment, and then nodded. "Yes, sir, There are no problems."

"Good. Lieutenant, prepare to throw the switches and insert the plug," Fuyutsuki directed, hearing the whines of the actuators and pistons as they inserted the plug into the red warrior's back and sealed it shut with its thick carapace of armor, before a huge orange hose let in thousands of liters of LCL flowing into the plug.

"Initial plug depth is now set at 0.105, plug data has been reprogrammed for Nagisa. LCL internal pressure is at nominal levels. Main power is ready to be activated," Shigeru reported.

"Good. Now it's a go for the main power circuits," Fuyutsuki ordered as he and Misato kept an eye on several consoles showing the full status of every system and sensor in Unit-02, before Shigeru threw the huge red switches forward.

All of them could hear the electricity immediately surge into the umbilical cable on the back of Unit-02 with enough wattage to light up a mid-sized town for a month.

The huge of readouts and indicators on the displays before the people in the control began to show how far all the figures were climbing. Kaworu began to feel prickle on his skin, and he could hear the humming inside growing in volume and intensity.

"Voltage increasing to the critical point... 0.5... 0.2... it's going up and towards nominal levels," Maya reported.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Second stage, ladies and gentlemen," he ordered.

"Synapses inserted. Junction in progress," Shigeru reported.

"Pulses transmitted. All circuits are operational. No problems with the initial contacts, it's all in the green." Maya announced again.

"Power has been transmitted to the upper muscle group. There are absolutely no problems with the nerve links, sir," Shigeru shot back.

Maya nodded in latent satisfaction. "Up to 2550 link points on the list here also all accounted for," she added. "He's over the line."

"Very good, Lieutenant. Now I need the A-10 contacts on initial," Fuyutsuki ordered as he saw everything in the green, before he looked at Kaworu again. The young man was still smiling in the amber light of the plug as he comfortably gripped the butterfly handles.

"Roger, connecting the A-10 now," Ibuki told back as she typed out a string of commands on the keyboard.

"The connection to the A-10 nerve is operational," Makoto confirmed, seeing that there were no problems.

"Eva-02 system control switched to Japanese as primary language. All initial contacts are set," Ibuki noted, before she checked the display for the sync.

"The mutual lines are connected. Synchronization rate is now settled at 75.2%," she reported. Inwardly she was surprised at the figure alone; the other Children could barely make it to 50 or even 60 percent of sync.

Satisfied, Fuyutsuki let off a sigh before he decided that it was time to check the plug depth.

"Take the plug depth down to 0.3," he commanded. "Let's see how deep he can go."

"Roger, sir," Maya answered back as she let the plug down to another level. Indicators onscreen showed the representation of the entry plug sliding deeper into the Eva to increase control strength with the pilot.

With a final look at all the systems after twenty minutes, Fuyutsuki asked them if everything was fine.

"Any problems so far, people?" he questioned. Every display showed the figures and graphs in normal green.

"No problems, sir. The test procedures are operating normally," Makoto noted.

"What does the MAGI say about this?" Fuyutsuki queried at Maya, who looked at another one of the consoles. All three supercomputers reported a full optimized operation between the Eva and Kaworu.

"No data errors, sir. No one bit of it," Maya stated, before she continued monitoring the graphs for anything out of the ordinary.

Seeing that the test was going well – perhaps _too _well – that Fuyutsuki turned his attention to the rest of the control room crew.

"It's amazing that this young man synchronizes completely with Unit-02 before replacing the core data. it's all too perfect," he told them.

Still continuing her monitoring job, Maya could only manage a shrug. "Yes, sir, you're right. What Nagisa is doing is, it's rather impossible. I mean, sir, I couldn't believe it myself. None of the other Children can achieve a sync rate this _impressive _in a very short time."

_This is downright eerie, _Misato told herself. _I'd better talk to Kaworu. What he has... I have to find out what kind of message he is really carrying._

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 04: ON THE BROKEN SHORE  
by soulassassin547

* * *

An hour later, Kaworu was just finished dressing up after showering and toweling off, when Misato walked into the locker room.

"Hello there. Kaworu Nagisa, I presume?" Misato asked.

"Oh, good afternoon to you, Major. You're my commanding officer, am I right?" Kaworu answered. _Well, she is still a very beautiful woman at twenty-nine,_ Kaworu remarked to himself, recalling the facts. _But it's so sad to hear what happened to Agent Kaji._

Misato smiled. "Yes, Mister Nagisa. I'm sorry we hadn't met before. Anyway, Mister Nagisa, what do you think about your first test today?" she questioned.

Kaworu gave her a cheerful reply. "It's not a big deal to me," he remarked as he extended his hand to her, which she accepted.

Upon contact, Kaworu felt something within her heart and soul, a stream of painful memories and deep emotions went through his senses. In a split-second, he heard the sounds of a crying woman in his mind, a gunshot, explosions and a flash of light.

_What the...? Am I hearing things?_

Kaworu disagreed in his thoughts as he blinked._ It can't be. It must be a mind trick._

"What's wrong?" Misato asked, seeing the young man frown a bit.

Suddenly pulled back into reality, Kaworu shook his head. "N...Nothing, ma'am. I'm okay."

"I see. You may call me Major on base, but outside and in my home, you can call me Misato. I'm not a stickler for formalities and red tape, you see," she told him.

"Yes, ma'am, I agree with you," Kaworu said as he buckled the belt onto his pants and tightened it.

"Good. Have you met the others?" she asked, referring to the Children.

Kaworu nodded. "I've met Ayanami so far, ma'am, and I've also seen Souryu, too. I am very sorry about what happened to her," he noted.

Misato sighed. "Yes, Mister Nagisa. I wasn't happy when she was found in the ruins several days ago... She was in a state of traumatic shock and even tried to..."

"Well, ma'am, I hope she'll recover soon enough," Kaworu commented, optimism laced in his voice.

Misato shook her head, apparently unsure. "Oh, I don't know when... She's due to be returned to Germany for further psychological treatment next week. And I also don't know what to say to her parents. "

Kaworu pursed his lips, while buttoning up. "I am afraid that will come down to apologies, ma'am."

"Yeah, thanks. But have you met Shinji yet?" Misato questioned, changing the subject.

Kaworu shrugged. "No, ma'am, and I have not yet run into him," he answered as he straightened out his shirt. "I'm sure he's alone right now."

"Are you sure you want to talk to him?" Misato queried, as she watched Kaworu sit down on the bench and wear his sneakers.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I do and I will be happy to see him," he answered. "Anything else you want me to do today, ma'am? I have nothing on my work schedule."

"No... Nothing at the moment, Mister Nagisa, but are you interested in coming to my home for dinner? Just to get to know each other," Misato offered.

Kaworu blinked, before he beamed. "I am honored to be your guest, Major, but I'll look around for Shinji," he commented as he stood up on his feet.

"Good," she remarked, before she realized that this new guy might be a vegetarian like Rei. "Are you a vegetarian?"

Kaworu blinked again. "Yes. I can't eat meat for personal reasons."

"Oh, just to make sure. Well, I'll see you later, Kaworu," Misato finished, before she walked out first.

"Thank you, ma'am. It's been a pleasure to meet you," Kaworu answered.

As she walked toward the bank of elevators going up to her office, Misato felt really perplexed with her first impression of Kaworu. _Amazing, _she told herself_. He's far more open than I ever expected. We'll see what kind of guy you are in the next few days, pretty boy._

Back in the locker room, Kaworu rested against the wall and reflected. _Major, I can see it in your eyes; you are just as lonely as the others. I think that a walk outside would do me good._

* * *

Still troubled with his thoughts and aimlessly walking around the ruined city, Shinji decided to head for the shore of the crater lagoon instead of the Geofront as he had originally planned. The sky was colored tangerine, while the setting sun glowed with a orange brightness.

_I... I can't say what I wanted to say to them... I don't know... Mom, I feel really bad, really sorry... I don't want to be hated,_ Shinji sadly reflected. His eyes were downcast and his head hung in frustration, as he walked along, both of his hands in his pockets.

Spotting an empty soda can lying in the middle of the sidewalk, Shinji kicked it hard and watched the can fly away into the gutter with a clink.

_What can I do?_ He sighed, as he climbed up over the huge pile of ferroconcrete slabs that marked the end of the street and the sidewalk, and got down to the other side with his feet on the sandy shore.

There, the waves gently lapped as the setting sun let its beams shine on the crests with the glitter of diamonds, while the breeze billowed across the wide expanse of the lagoon. This blissful sight in the midst of destruction was enough to warrant the defraying of the senses, after an agonizing day spent in the loneliness of his empty room, with only a tropicalized penguin for company.

For a minute or two, Shinji stood there, observing the beauty of nature in motion, artfully altering his notion of the extent of destruction Unit-00 had wrought, when he heard someone whistling a rather familiar tune.

It was the Ode to Joy.

Shinji turned around to find Kaworu sitting by a concrete slab, performing his single-instrument symphony.

"Isn't it good that a song can greatly accompany the viewing of nature's beauty?" Kaworu asked cordially. "Like the spring blossoms of the lost years?"

"What?" Shinji questioned, taken aback by Kaworu's unexpected appearance, before he slowly nodded. "Yes, just like the lost years."

Kaworu smiled. "That is correct, Shinji Ikari. Music is the only thing that can bring joy and beauty to everyone, and it is the most sublime form of expression man has ever created since the beginning of time," he explained pleasantly.

"Ah... Who are you? How did you know my name?" Shinji asked, quite perplexed.

Kaworu chuckled, happy to meet his new friend for the first time. "I am Kaworu Nagisa, and I was selected as the new candidate most recently," he introduced. "The Fifth Children, if you want it to be more ceremonial. And you're a household word back in Germany."

Shinji blinked. "Sorry... I didn't know about that. Did you arrive today...?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, my friend, early this morning. Just managed my first compatibility test session."

"Really?"

"Yes. It wasn't a big deal anyway. But..." Kaworu noted the other boy's melancholic face with concern. "You look so sad, what's the problem?"

"I... I'm upset about what happened for the past few days..." Shinji mumbled.

"Is it about Rei and Asuka?" Kaworu asked. "Heard about what happened to our fellow pilots before I came here. I am sorry about their plight."

"Yeah..." Shinji agreed. "I wasn't happy to know that Asuka nearly killed herself because... or Ayanami... Lost her memory after blowing up Unit 00... I feel that she looked so strange to me... not the Ayanami I know anymore, and I feel that I can't talk to her... she's too distant."

With a sad sigh, Shinji sat on one of the slabs and stared off at the gleaming horizon. "What's worse... Kaji's dead now," he continued. "Somebody killed him... I don't know who killed him... Misato heard his last words on the answering machine and cried... Doctor Akagi's in jail... and my friends are gone because they don't want to be caught in the crossfire... Blaming me for giving them too much trouble... Don't want to think about what happened to Toji... so here I am, walking around and trying to forget my problems..."

Feeling dejected, Shinji hung his head. "Kaworu... why must everything be like this?" he lamented, "Why?"

There was a silent moment between the young men, amid the splash of the lapping waves... before Kaworu answered, breaking their silence.

"Don't blame yourself, because pain and suffering are a fact of life..." Kaworu spoke. "Everyone gets hurt, because it always happens. But there are people who have gone through things a million times worse than piloting Eva, and managed to survive."

Shinji nodded. "They do?"

"Yes," Kaworu agreed. "But in your case, I believe that you can survive suffering if you can bear to live with the pain."

Shinji shook his head. "I could not," he refused.

"Yes, you can fight your way through, and I believe in that," Kaworu insisted.

"No, I can't because... because I hate myself, and people hate me," Shinji finally admitted with a hard swallow of his throat.

Kaworu frowned. "Why hate yourself? Why would people hate you?"

"Because I wish I was never here... I wish they left me in peace instead... I wish that all of this... this pain never happened to me. Because I don't have the guts to fight, and I have let down everyone... I don't believe in myself."

"Is it so? Look, you should be glad that I'm talking to you so that I could help," Kaworu answered. "So please, from what I know about you, you have to do the right thing because everyone is counting on you. You're the only last chance humanity has to survive, and I believe in that, too, and I want to see that you, you can believe in yourself, so that people will restore their trust in you, once you have proved to them that you can do it, and if it's okay for you, can you promise to yourself that you can hold your head up high, and prove that you can live with the pain?"

With that question, Shinji let himself think for a minute, before he told Kaworu his final answer.

"Y... Yes. You must be right... I'll try to live and learn with the pain," Shinji reluctantly decided.

Kaworu nodded. "Good, but don't worry anymore. I might help you get a grip. Feel better this time?"

Shinji smiled a bit. "Yeah... Thank you, Kaworu... And... can I shake your hand?" Shinji offered, along with his hand, which Kaworu accepted with pleasure.

Suddenly, disbelief hit him in a split second as a rush of emotions went into him. Images, sounds, feelings, the joy and the pain, but more of the pain, all coming from this young man who would be his friend for the next several days. A would-be friend desperately needing help, more than someone drowning in deep, icy water. Still the Fifth Children found it incredible to fathom the depths of Shinji's feelings.

_My... not again..._ Kaworu wondered, _what am I feeling from him and his thoughts...? How in the world I managed to do this? Is it by touching?_

_Impossible..._ he concluded to himself. _Is it a gift?_

Confounded at the odd face Kaworu made, Shinji cocked an eye at him. "Is there's something wrong with you?"

"No, no, I'm just fine," Kaworu replied, and instead he told Shinji of his dinner invitation. "By the way, since there's nothing else to do today, Misato invited me to dinner at your place. Should we get going, then?"

Shinji agreed, his mood somewhat improved, but he cautioned, "I warn you, Misato is a very terrible cook."

"Why?"

"She tried, but usually she burns it, so either I do the cooking or Misato brings home instant ramen from the convenience store," Shinji explained. "It's an old carryover from her days in college."

"Oh," Kaworu spoke, but then he smiled, realizing that anything goes and relieved to see his new friend brighten up emotionally. "How bad it could be, anyway?" he added.

* * *

Having come home to her apartment from Headquarters, after passing by a convenience store at a nearby town to buy some instant ramen, Misato was now in the kitchen, carefully pouring some hot water from the airpot into three opened double-sized containers of Cup Noodles.

After sealing the covers of the instant ramen cups, Misato turned on the radio on the counter and tuned to a station that played old love songs.

While Pen-Pen was lolling beside her feet, Misato thought about the tiny chip that Kaji had left to her before he had been murdered. It contained information that he had compiled on NERV, The Marduk Committee and Project E over the past few years ever since he started doing his double-agent work between NERV and the Inquiry Section of the Japanese Ministry of the Interior.

_That little thing he gave to me, said that it took him 36 or so ways to put his secrets into my hands, so why it had to be hard for him to do it when he can simply stick that thing on the bottom of a can of Yebisu?_

_Shit. Kaji... why did you have to die?_ Misato lamented, and then she sighed and closed her eyes, thinking once more of his kisses and caresses as the ballad went on. Thinking of the good times, of those drinking binges and the bedtime stories that followed.

Now her days will never be the same without Ryoji. What was left of his legacy, in her mind, was the scent of his cologne, the stubble of his unshaved chin, his voice on the phone and the roughness of his hands over her smooth body. She could also remember the way his fingers coursed through her raven-dark hair, his nose and lips gracefully following the contours of her slender neck, seeking the aroma of her lavender perfume, as he gently unwrapped her body.

It was a poignant memory in her mind, nothing more. Misato shook her head resignedly before she resignedly listen to another of those love songs on the radio, except that this one was an old Meiko Kaji tear-jerker from a nearly-forgotten past:

_You're beautiful, you're the flower, he praises you.  
But if you bloom, he will get you scattered.  
Stupid. So stupid.  
_

_I go so stupid singin' my grudge blues.  
You can accept your pitiful fate.  
But when you cry, he'll make you cry more.  
_

_Women, oh women,_  
_It's women's tears that makes my grudge blues.  
I hate you. Full of regret, never forgiven.  
_

_Try to erase my memory, but cannot forget you.  
It never ends, never,  
It never ends, 'cause that's my grudge blues._

_They say it's a dream, embers of one-sided attachment,  
laughing at you.  
So you decide to wake up, but fear to be fully awake.  
_

_Women, oh women,_  
_Women's soul beats on my grudge blues.  
Crimson roses have its sharp thorns.  
_

_Don't wanna hurt you, but have to stab you with my thorn.  
Burning, it's burning,  
It keeps on burning within my grudge blues._

_No flower would bloom on my dead body.  
So I will live along hanging on my grudge.  
Women, oh women,  
My woman's life belongs to my grudge blues..._

Once that sad song ended, Misato turned down the volume and smiled regretfully. _Kaji... You're such a stupid sonofabitch for dying on me... for breaking my heart, but... Even if your damned phone doesn't ring anymore, I think... I think that I should keep on living... _

_And if... if I die one day soon, only then I'll finally hear what you wanted to say to me for so long... You really wanted to say 'I--_

Suddenly, she heard the doorbell ringing, which snapped Misato out of her thoughts.

"Oh, I'll get it," Misato told Pen-Pen before she headed towards the front door and opened it.

"Hello, Misato," Kaworu greeted, with Shinji standing beside him, who looked relieved to be home for dinner and quite hungry. The three of them bowed deeply in unison, in deference to tradition.

"Ah, you're just in time. Come inside, Kaworu. Welcome to my home," she answered as the two boys let go of their shoes and walked in. "Sorry, but I'm serving instant ramen tonight."

"That's okay, ma'am," Kaworu answered. He also took note of the Katsuragi household, such as the housekeeping duties schedule still tacked onto the refrigerator, which had been expanded to include Asuka in its lineup; Pen-Pen's abode; and the large collection of high-proof booze and cans of beer that was strewn on the kitchen counter.

_I figured that you're trying to drown the world in a bottle, given with your past problems, Misato,_ he remarked inwardly.

"So, ma'am, no I mean, Misato, people must think that you are an unbeatable drinker from the look of this collection of yours," he commented.

"Yeah, I know, Kaworu," she admitted as she prepared the Cup Noodles, set their glasses and the chopsticks on the table, before she gestured to Shinji. "Could you get me my beer and some orange juice for us, please?"

Shinji nodded. "Okay," he answered as he went to the refrigerator and picked out a frosted can of Yebisu and a carton of juice before he handed them over to Misato.

Misato turned around, to notice that Kaworu was still standing. "Hey, why don't you sit down a bit? Just feel at home," she invited, before the ashen-haired boy comfortably took his seat.

Finally, their dinner was ready, as they promptly took their chopsticks, before the two boys waited for Misato for her start.

_"Itadakimasu!" _she announced, before all three of them peeled off the seals from their Cup Noodles and dug in with their chopsticks.

While halfway through their dinner, Misato figured that she needed to shoot a few frank questions at Kaworu.

"Say, how long you were trained for this, I mean, in Project E?" Misato queried.

Kaworu pursed his lips. "About five years. I was given the same training in Germany as with Asuka," he answered.

"Controlling the Eva?" she questioned point-blank.

"Yes, along with the use of its weapon systems, armament and methods of combat," Kaworu added.

"Seen a lot about the way they fought?" Misato asked further, referring to the other Children.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, after reviewing the video footage of every battle they were involved in." _Including Pyrrhic victories,_ he included inwardly.

"Oh," Misato remembered. "Tell me about what you felt when you first met Rei. Did it go well?"

Kaworu shrugged. "Well, almost. She was a bit shy." _And she was also too doubtful and helpless,_ he reflected sadly, recalling the confusion in the young woman's face earlier.

Misato nodded. "I see. I hope you'll keep on talking to her," she sighed wistfully as she popped off another beer.

"Don't worry. I'll try to see her tomorrow so that I can get to know her better," Kaworu assured the woman, watching her drink.

Shinji also noticed the way she drank, and knew why. _After Kaji... she doesn't quite relish her beer the way she once used to. She's not the same anymore_.

"Tell me, Shinji. Do you know what I think of when I'm drinking beer?" Misato asked him as he filled up his and Kaworu's glasses with orange juice.

"What?"

"When it comes to beer, I'm reminded of the good old days. That makes beer taste so good," Misato spoke, as she examined the can in her hand. "I celebrate the good times like my birthday or when my report or contract gets approved, or whenever Ryoji or Ritsuko wanted me to go out with them and paint the town red. Well, unlike everyone else, when I get a hangover I feel happy because it makes me feel so funny and fuzzy inside. "

"But now," Misato continued, shaking her head, "By God, these days aren't the same anymore, because beer now tastes different. I feel that the world's going crazy."

Shinji and Kaworu understood with their nods. _It's truly hard to be alone,_ Kaworu pondered.

"So I'm holding up my drink for someone I knew and who's close to my heart," Misato concluded.

Realizing that Misato was about to toast the late, lamented Ryoji Kaji, Shinji and Kaworu got their glasses of orange juice and raised them up.

"To Ryoji Kaji, the man who still loved me despite everything I was. Cheers_,_" she declared with a sad smile.

"Cheers," Shinji and Kaworu seconded in unison, and their drinks clanked together in the air, before they drank them down.

A few minutes of eating later, Misato spoke to Shinji.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to visit Asuka in the infirmary," she asked.

"I... um... I would like to, but..." he mumbled. _I'm a little afraid to do it_, Shinji doubted silently.

"Don't worry. Maybe Kaworu could come along with you. You might cheer her up, too. Is it okay?" Misato questioned Kaworu.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I will help him," he agreed, and Shinji sighed in relief.

Pleased, Misato smiled. "Okay. Where will you sleep tonight?" she asked.

"Back below in my quarters at the base. I don't mind if I sleep alone," Kaworu informed.

Wanting to help his new friend, Shinji turned his attention to Kaworu. "Do you want to sleep here instead?" he offered cordially.

Beaming, Kaworu stared back at him with thoughtful eyes. "I am also honored to accept your offer, my friend."

Happy with this exchange, Misato began to talk about Hikari Horaki, of whom Asuka spoken so highly because of the Class Rep's cooking.

"From what Asuka has said about Hikari," she admitted, "I really envy her because I messed up with my cooking skills. Sorry guys, but I grew up on too much instant ramen."

"I beg your pardon... Who is Hikari?" Kaworu asked.

"She's one of Shinji's classmates in school," Misato informed. "Hikari Horaki is their Class Representative, and according to Asuka, she's also an excellent cook at home."

"Oh, I see," Kaworu agreed. "It's a pity that I am not able to meet Shinji's friends in time. Maybe, if this city returns to what it once used to be, even if it would only become just a small town, then I will be able to make more friends."

"Uh, by the way," Misato said. "Is it okay if you could watch TV with us?"

Kaworu thought for a while, but he asked, "I don't mind what's on right now. Sometimes I watch, and sometimes I read."

"I see," Misato said. "If you need anything else, there's no problem. I'm a gracious host, and as we're real alone in this neighborhood, it's a great occasion to have some guests, considering how hard things are lately."

Kaworu smiled. "Thank you. That was very kind of you."

Misato raised her can again. "My pleasure."


	5. Overnight Stay

The night was very quiet, compared to a day's worth of cicadas chirping loudly across the ruined city. The outer limits of the metropolis were still lit with the harsh orange glow of street lamps and industrial lights, the only indications of living inhabitants solidly determined to hold on despite the devastating effects of Angel attacks. The huge crater lagoon reflected the glow of the crescent moon rising above the starry sky, shining upon the blackened ferroconcrete rubble of the glorious monuments of man's Tower of Babel-like attempt to reach the heavens.

In the suburbs of the city, Misato was still working late in front of her computer, the woman cooled down by a nearby electric fan. While her radio was softly playing Paramore, on her desk was the flash drive that Makoto had given to her early in the day and yet another half-empty can of Yebisu. She was thinking of the secrets of the Instrumentality Project she was halfway to unraveling, where the price in the search for the truth included the life of a 30-year old spy.

Taking the flash drive and plugging it into the computer's USB port, Misato looked for the files and opened each of them one by one. They were certainly to die for.

One document had a series of slightly-blurred images embedded into its pages, accompanied by a beginning title page that said 'Advanced Mass Production Models'. Each of the images had a caption stamped with 'Sinkiang', 'Baikonur', 'Pyongyang' and 'Black Mesa', indicative of the secret locations where those photos were taken. But if one focused more closely, the subjects in the pictures were unmistakably Evas, except that these hulking beasts were strangely dissimilar to the familiar Units 01 and 02 in the Geofront stables -- all painted white, more organic and bestial.

"What the hell is this?" Misato mumbled in shock, before she noted that Makoto had added his comments near the end of the document:

_"What you're seeing here are nine new Evas in construction and due for activation anytime this month... but more likely this week, I believe."_

_"Much of this info came from my reliable source in Shanghai, who in turn got them from all over the world. You'd better believe that all of these developments stem partly from the impatience of the Committee behind the scenes, taking out their wallets because they feel that they're driven into a corner."_

"What's going on?" Misato muttered her thoughts, before recalling how the situation had suddenly changed.

_We had received spare parts from Germany a few months ago,_ she reflected, _which were originally made for Units 5 and 6 to fix our busted-up Evas. That took an arm and a leg just to ask for those parts._

_Now, they're burning a great deal of money, as if there's no tomorrow._

Misato frowned. _But has the Committee ever thought about our shrinking annual budget and other urgent requests? We've got some problems with upgrading our defenses, construction materials to fix our damaged facilities, and even new equipment for some of the departments waving requisition forms._

_I can't understand why they're building a spare force this large. What are we going to face next, a massive Angel attack?_

Misato frowned and shook her head, disagreeing with that idea. _That's not a possible scenario, it looks too unrealistic. There must be another bigger reason why. Yeah, I've seen the freak show at Terminal Dogma. I've seen the Dummy Plug Plant and the graveyard in the forbidden areas, and now these new Evas being prepared for some huge Angel invasion from nowhere?_

_This is insane, really damned insane, and I'm seeing only the tip of the bloody iceberg._

Next, Misato checked the other file she opened.

True to Makoto's words, it contained some blank entries, followed by a large amount of cryptic synchronization and genetic data that Ritsuko would've easily understood and interpreted:

**Fifth Children - Kaworu Nagisa  
**Date of Birth: 09/13/2000  
Place of Birth: unknown  
Gender: Male  
Height: 166cm  
Weight: 45kg  
Parents/Guardians: unknown  
Level of Education: unknown  
Commanding Officer: Major Misato Katsuragi, Tactical Operations Manager

T-PTN: 77049048-S  
R-CNF: 52147811-V  
D-UNT: 34687041-N  
DD-TYPE: GREEN  
TNP-LBL:  
R:4045114  
S:5465714  
T:7819690  
U:.999998

_This is not enough,_ Misato complained, finding the information too incomprehensible. _I need some more time to figure out who's this boy and where he comes from._

Now Misato became aware of Ryoji Kaji's data capsule lying near the keyboard, locked in by a password--

_"...If you wanted to know the truth behind the mysteries for the past 15 years, it took me a big deal to get them. But using normal channels will not work, as they're probably been compromised."_

_"Instead, the only one that's guaranteed to come into your hands is this capsule. This is all that I have. It's completely up to you how to use it, and the password is what we remember. "_

--which only Misato knew, and it made her thoughts slowly drift to the man whom she both loved and hated, momentarily forgetting the work in front of her.

_Love..._ Misato lamented in her thoughts. _The price I have to pay to find the truth... is your life. God... Kaji, I'm worried because I'm still lost in the darkness... I can't say how, but..._

Misato sighed, wishing that he was here and sitting besides her, wishing that he would listen to her worries and try to give her comfort and sound advice. From that, a sad thought finally burst into her mind like a bubble from the depths.

_But every time that I'm in your arms... each time I look into your face... you make me think of my father, and I hated him..._

_Damn... I hated keeping myself pure and clean for a long time... so I tried to be dirty instead by letting you into me, into my very being... I thought it was my happiness, my liberty, my refuge..._

_But it's not... By this thing we call love... it's also pain. Pain of being with you... yet Kaji, you also tore and bled me through as your arms wrap around me... You make me want to run away from your presence.... and up till now... I couldn't let go._

_Why?_

Misato, now the loneliest woman in the world at this moment, closed her eyes hard.

_...Is it because I have no other place to go... no one else to talk to... no other man to care for... but you?_

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 05: OVERNIGHT STAY  
by soulassassin547

* * *

Unknown to Misato, two young people in the other, smaller bedroom were also awake.

As he lay comfortably besides his new friend on the bed, Kaworu Nagisa noted that for the last hour, Shinji Ikari hadn't able to sleep, an indication that a lot of nagging thoughts were plaguing his mind.

"You couldn't sleep because of the bad things that happened to you?" Kaworu asked after the long silence between them.

"Well... yes," Shinji admitted nervously.

"I see. Tell me, my friend, I would like to know your story," he suggested.

"What?" the other boy blurted.

"I mean, my friend, I was wondering how you ended up here. I'm also interested about your past," Kaworu said.

For a moment or two Shinji let himself think about his entire life, a badly-disrupted childhood marked by a number of heartbreaks, before he started off with the first one that ripped his life apart.

"Okay," he agreed after what appeared to be an eternity for him to start confessing. "My mother... My mother... when I was little... she... she died. Yes, she died and that's what put me here in this Godforsaken place."

"I'm sorry for you, but how did your mother die?" Kaworu queried innocently, not wanting to hurt his new friend's feelings.

"It... It was a freak accident... I was with Mom, and she took me to the laboratory on that day," the other boy recalled. "Thinking that I wanted to see what she did for a living, Mom showed me what she was working on..."

Kaworu blinked. "What is it then? Was it?"

"Eva Unit-01... it was there, hooked up for testing. Yes, it was a huge frightening thing, staring back at me like a..."

"Yes, a beast or a raging bull," Kaworu agreed.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, right... a big beast of... what I never knew what it was for then. Thought that it was straight out of a TV show, except that this... Eva was for real."

"What happened while you were there?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji tried to remember, but he could only find fragments of that day... only voices.

"I couldn't remember much," Shinji spoke, "but... while I was staring at Unit-01, thinking that... it was oddly funny to see this Eva come out of a comic book or something like that... Mom and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki were arguing about why I was there."

"What did they argue about?"

"I overheard them... I think I could remember what... I remembered that Professor... er, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked Mom why she took me there, and told her that testing day was very important to them."

"And then...?" Kaworu urged.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki was upset... really worried. He thought that by bring me there, anything could go wrong... He was also worried about me playing with the switches and things in the control room. But Mom told him something... like..." At that point Shinji solemnly closed his eyes, trying to recall the exact last words.

"She told him that she wanted to show me the future," Shinji confessed.

"The future," Kaworu answered, letting that word roll around his mind. "I see. So she intended Eva to be for your future?"

"Yeah... It could be," Shinji guessed. "But then I realized what she really meant about what she said."

"How, and in what way?" Kaworu questioned, trying to probe further.

"I saw her again once more... when I was sucked into the Sea of Dirac back then. That was about two months ago."

Kaworu blinked. "Is that really true?"

Shinji swallowed hard. "Yes... she was there, all along. I thought that I was dreaming or what... Mom came out of nowhere and woke me up before I could die in that pit."

"So in a sense she is in Eva, protecting you, right?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, she really is."

Kaworu chuckled. "Ah, a guardian angel, some religious Westerners would say, that protects you from spiritual harm.... well, and it's not the kind you and your fellow pilots face off with."

At that point Shinji recalled something out of that irony. "Funny. I thought of what I said about that the other time..."

"It's about what?" Kaworu questioned briefly.

"The Angels... messengers of God, and my father and Misato told me that they are enemies carrying Angelic names," Shinji informed.

"So it's so strange to you, doing battle with these supposed sacred creatures of God, right?"

"Yeah... I wonder why we're fighting and killing the hell out of them," Shinji spoke drowsily, still unsure as to what were the real intentions of their gigantic opponents.

_It's a part of a plan you and your companions will soon find out,_ Kaworu reflected.

"Beats me," he brusquely replied. "I see that it's time to get some sleep."

"Uh-huh..." Shinji yawned. "Thanks for giving me a chance to sleep well."

Kaworu yawned as well. "You're welcome. Good night, Shinji... Hope you dream good ones," he reassured as he covered up their bodies with the blanket.

"Well, thanks again... Good night, Kaworu," Shinji finally answered before he closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep, not realizing that he forgot to set the alarm on the bedside clock.

But Kaworu didn't. He remembered the strange sensation he felt when he shook hands with Misato and Shinji.

_Strange... I felt as if I peered into their very thoughts... and their feelings in their hearts. Did I really do that?_

Kaworu frowned a little. _Is it because of my nature? It could be... after all, I was probably created, out of unusual circumstances. Maybe I'll find out soon how this odd feeling really works for me... it could be something I never knew all along._

At last, Kaworu closed his eyes with a final thought, remembering his first meeting with the First Children.

There was something beneath her cerise eyes that caught his attention, even in the fleeting moment they parted after that very brief meeting.

_Through your eyes, Rei, I could see sadness... and confusion in your heart. This leaves me wondering if you're lost,_ Kaworu pondered. _Are you afraid of something? Or you doubt about me?_

_Now if only you can tell me why._

Kaworu sighed. _Instead, I'll see you again tomorrow... and I hope we could talk over about your problems._

* * *

Across the still waters of the crater lagoon in the middle of the city, it was a different situation. Rei was tossing and turning on the bed as she dreamed.

A dream, but more of a nightmare, full of fragments of her disjointed memories that made it difficult for her to define their true meaning. Voices she could not recall, snatches of mental images in a very violent, blurry jumble, threatening to become critical mass. The last clear voice she ever heard above the maelstrom of voices and images was.

_"If I let loose... there is no way my AT-Field would ever contain it... The Field will disintegrate... I... I must hold on..."_

And a sudden explosion of bright light nearly blinded her eyes...causing Rei to wake up with a cry. Blinking in the darkness, Rei found herself sweating. She could also hear her labored breathing and the heavy beating of her heart.

Trying to recover from her unexpected awakening, Rei promptly turned on the overhead study lamp before she propped herself to sit on the side of the bed, and moved the blanket away from her body. She could feel the drops of perspiration as they flowed down onto her skin.

_What am I dreaming of?_ Rei contemplated between her breaths.

_I could not define it... it is all but... are they the parts of my memory that I could not know or remember?_

As the blue-haired girl sat still, bathed by the blue-white fluorescent light, Rei relaxed herself from the aftershocks of her nightmare, a dream that had no meaning. Slowly her mind wandered, recalling the circumstances of her resurrection as the third iteration, wondering why she was crying on that day:

_"Are these tears? I am seeing these for the first time... but it does not seem to me to be the first time... I am crying... Why am I crying?"_

_Tears spattered the linen blanket that covered the lower half of her body, before the salty spatters widened into clearly-definable stains._

_Why?_

She also began to ask herself the same questions that were troubling her thoughts ever since the death of her predecessor.

_I need an answer... I want to know why and what am I living for..._

_What is my purpose as Rei Ayanami? Why do I have to exist?_

Rei stood up and walked to the cabinet near the bed, where the pair of eyeglasses was kept in its case. She picked up the case, opened it, and then she examined the glasses. One of its lenses was cracked.

The glasses were given to Rei not so long ago, yet although she recognized that these glasses belonged to the Commander, she had yet to remember how they came into her possession.

_The Commander... he needed me, because that is what I was meant for_, she reflected_._

_But more likely I existed for something else,_ Rei shook her head. _I existed for the sake of duty and for a purpose... For without these... I am worthless... I have no direction... and I do not know myself._

Rei slowly put the glasses back into its place and thought of her earlier resolve.

_I need some answers... I also need some help... but to whom shall I ask for help?_

* * *

Back to the other side of town, Kaworu was in a different yet heavily-detailed dream, an amalgamation of the psychic feelings he experienced earlier.

_The sun was almost obscured by the haze of reddish dust, as he walked through a street of a village without a name, yet there was the now-familiar mountains ringing around Hakone. Devoid of life save for Kaworu himself, there was neither a voice that could be heard, not even the calls of the birds or summer cicadas. Bounding his path were traditional old houses typical of Hakone, with ceramic tiled roofs and wooden walls, but again there was no one to be found in those dwellings._

_Undaunted by the non-existence of life and the melancholy of this dreamworld, Kaworu walked on, towards the center of the village, hoping there might be something he could find, until he came upon a park filled not with greenery but dead trees and grass. _

_And there was a voice, or so he heard, coming from the playground at the center of the park, which Kaworu took for a pulsing soul. Though he squinted in the dust to correct his gaze as he came near, the voice had finally taken a shape in the form of a crying child. _

_Crying, the child stood with a big duffel bag besides him, trying to rub the eyes free of tears yet sobbing. This child also wore a striped shirt and black shorts, both dirtied with dust. But what grabbed Kaworu's attention was the kid's face, so familiar that recognition has finally come upon by providing a name._

_Shinji, at the age of five, for no reason he was here except to cry._

_But for what? Kaworu asked himself, but he answered it by seeing if he could talk to him._

_"Shinji?" the Fifth Children spoke softly, "You're not alone, and I'm here for you. Why are you crying for?"_

_Still, the kid standing before Kaworu continued crying as if he was the only one here, until it dawned upon Kaworu that this child could not see him. He pleaded silently for an answer... and little Shinji did._

_"Why... did you have to... hate me?" he whispered while sobbing. "Leave me? Why?"_

_Who have wronged you? Kaworu questioned him without speaking. _

_But before Kaworu could utter another word, the scene changed with the dust suddenly becoming thicker with the howling wind until it was replaced by white snow of a raging blizzard. _

_As the snowstorm swept around Kaworu, surprised to see the world change before him, the flakes of ice covered the mountains and the ground until there was only the shape and outline of the land remaining. He turned around, and espied a complex of tents and prefabricated geodesic huts just a few yards away. Parked besides this complex were some snowmobiles and a tracked snowcat._

Where am I?_ Kaworu asked, and this was instantly answered by a shouting match coming from the huts. _

_"Do you think you care much about me or Mother?" a girl yelled. "You're wrong about sending me down here, only to make me feel bad twice as much than I was back home!" _

_"Misato, calm down!" another voice, belonging to an older man, replied. "I've brought you here because I want to..."_

_Kaworu frowned as he looked at one of the huts bearing a painted sign:_

**United Nations Antarctic Interior Research Station C03  
Markham Mountain Survey Area  
Dr. R. Katsuragi - Chief of Research Group**

_Promptly the young man, not burdened by the intense cold of the southern wastes, found a frosted window from which he could watch the argument's sparks fly and understand the situation. He peered into the window, to find a younger Misato Katsuragi, fists clenched and her face wrought with rage, facing the man across the room who was obviously her father. Both of them wore thick orange parkas, but the tension was hotter than the stove-heated air inside. _

_"For what?" Misato sneered back, while trying to hold back the tears._

_"I want you to witness what I have discovered," the older man replied. "Hopefully you can understand why I have labored for so long to bring my theories into reality, so that I shall not be laughed upon by those other scatologists who think I am only providing them hot air. Isn't that the Super Solenoid Engine could become a revolution in energy production?" _

_With the mention of the S2 Engine, Kaworu had no idea how far he had gone into. _

_Misato shook her head in disappointment. "You haven't changed," she answered, hands now upon her face. "You tend to care more about your career and wanting to win a Nobel Prize... But think about me again... I have suffered for too long, don't you know? I never liked having my classmates asking my why I had a father like you, and I envy them for having parents who care." _

_Rebuffed by her reply, the elder Katsuragi, instead of paying attention, he turned away and walked out. But at that point Kaworu's dreamy vision faded into black. _

* * *

The morning sun came up, well, too late for both Children. As he cracked open his eyes in the near-blinding glare, the harsh sunlight came up to Shinji's eyes, he groaned.

"Owww..." he groaned, squinting, before he slowly peered at the alarm clock and its red LED digits: it was 7:34 in the morning. That was what jolted him to life, since he realized in a split second that the Eva combat test session that day was set for 8 o'clock.

"Oh SHIT!" he exclaimed, sprang up quickly and waking up Kaworu in the process. "I forgot to set the clock! My, I forgot!"

"W... What?" Kaworu drowsily murmured, before he looked at the clock to get what the other boy meant.

Shinji panicked and ran off to the bathroom with his towel.

"Damn it, we're late! We have a test session today!" he shot back, before he rushed out of the room.

"Oh," Kaworu uttered, while he put away their blanket away and got his feet on the matted tatami floor.

_Lilim,_ he mused, shaking his head as he walked out of the bedroom, grabbing a red towel along the way. _They are never too perfect._

By the time he was in the kitchen, Shinji frantically twisted the doorknob to the bathroom.

"Look, I'm still busy, okay?" Misato shouted back from the inside, water splashing loudly behind the door. "Just wait!"

"Great," Shinji mumbled, letting go of the doorknob, before he turned around to see Kaworu stretching out with a yawn.

"I suppose that both of you are worrying about the morning rush," Kaworu noted as he loosened himself up.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, and at this time of the year, it's too hard to wake up when the morning's cold."

"Ah... I see. I'll wait for both of you instead," Kaworu answered as he went to the kitchen sink and washed his face thoroughly, before he toweled off.

"Hey, that's Asuka's towel," Shinji remarked, recognizing to whom the red monogrammed towel belonged to, but in a flash he also remembered the girl scolding him.

_"So,. you guys are staring at me, right?" Asuka snarled at them. "I'm gonna change clothes but I'll KILL YOU Stooges if you perverts go for another peek!"_

_"Hello! Are you there, you idiot? Hello!" Asuka mocked into his ear as she tapped the top of his head with her fist. "This is ME saying a big HELLO to you, 'cause you're such a grumpy sleepyhead!"_

Oddly, Shinji wished that Asuka was here again, bringing more color to his mornings despite her mockery, before Kaworu looked back at him.

"Sorry, I couldn't find yours," he apologized as he hung the towel upon his shoulders, while looking for a coffee mug. However he saw Shinji's spaced-out facial expression. "What's wrong? Something got into you?" Kaworu asked, snapping Shinji out of his reverie.

"No... No, it's nothing... I'm okay," Shinji answered, shaking his head before he pointed out the cabinet above the sink that kept the morning concoctions. "The tea, coffee, sugar and creamer are all inside," he informed.

Kaworu pleasantly nodded, completely unmindful of this frantic morning rush as he took out one of the coffee mugs from the cupboard, each of the mugs inscribed with the red NERV emblem.

"Thanks. I need a good, clean eye-opener to start my day," he told back.

As Kaworu quickly prepared himself some coffee instead of tea, he looked forward to this day's labors. _This should be an interesting day,_ he briefly reflected, before taking the first sip of his brew.

* * *

After forty tire-smoking minutes, the three late-comers were running through the long corridor within NERV Headquarters, leading to the Eva cages, their shoes clattering on the tiled floor as they sprinted furiously, hoping to make it just in time.

"I should've known... Oh, my, I should've known..." Misato mumbled, fuming between her shallow breaths, while the two boys talked about Kaworu's sync test debut.

"What was your sync rate yesterday?" Shinji asked while Kaworu ran by his side.

"I was told that I achieved a 75 percent sync rate," Kaworu informed.

"Whoa... You did 75 percent within a normal sync test?" Shinji awed.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I did it, my friend. Not much of a big deal."

"Impossible... It took us quite a hard time to reach that," Shinji remarked, briefly taken aback by Kaworu's momentous yet uncelebrated achievement.

"And so did I," Kaworu added another of his lies to level the playing field. "I spent three years trying to get there."

"Not very easy to do 75 percent... But at one point I came close to 400 percent," Shinji admitted.

Kaworu gaped. "400 percent..." he mumbled.

Unfortunately, Rei Ayanami was walking in the same direction towards the boys.

_Kaworu... I would like to talk,_ she reflected as she stepped into the intersection, unaware of the boys' arrival, her left foot sticking out first just round the corner...

Suddenly, Shinji saw her foot and gasped. "Kaworu, watch out!" he warned.

"What?" Kaworu blurted out, but it was too late as his sneakers caught onto her foot.

"Ah!" Rei cried, unexpectedly taken by surprise by Kaworu's appearance.

"Oops..." Kaworu yelped as he went down with Rei, before the two Children finally landed onto the floor.

_**BAM!**_

Misato suddenly stopped in mid-stride and was dumbfounded by their collision. "What the...?" she stammered.

Shinji blinked at the couple sprawled on the floor. "Ayanami... what are you doing here? Are you all right?"

On his knees and painfully nursing his head, Kaworu groaned while Rei was sitting half a meter away at the corridor wall, her blue skirt riding higher than her knees as she rubbed her forehead.

Blinking, Kaworu nodded, wincing from the pain as he got up. "I... I'm all right, ma'am. Is she okay?" he answered, trying to banish the stars from his eyes.

In unison, they all glanced up at Rei, who nodded back, telling them that she was indeed fine. At the same time, she was flushed with a slight tinge of pink on her face. Without hesitation, she hid her thighs away from the two boys and their disbelieving commanding officer.

"I am fine, Major," Rei quietly replied, despite her aching forehead. With complete reserve, she straightened herself and tried to get up on her wobbly feet.

Kaworu extended his hand gallantly, supporting the disconcerted young lady as she began to rise. "I'm sorry, Rei. We didn't know that you're coming our way," he profusely apologized as he gently supported her.

"It is nothing... I am also sorry that I was thinking too much," Rei admitted, finally able to prop herself against the wall.

Kaworu nodded before he stared into Rei's eyes.

She blinked pleadingly, a flicker of emotion in her cerise eyes as if she was asking for help, and evidently in his thoughts, he swore to himself that he felt the maelstrom of confusion within Rei's soul.

_I couldn't say this, but it looks like that you really need some help,_ Kaworu wondered. _Are you struggling to find the answers to your existence or your purpose?_

As for Rei, there was also something about Kaworu at the moment they made physical contact, and pondered for a second or two.

_Is this... the real Kaworu I have felt from his touch?_

_He could be hiding something... However... he also seemed to be willing to help me..._

"Hey, we have to go," Shinji informed him, tapping Kaworu's shoulder and snapping out the ashen-haired boy from his daze, while Misato nodded in confirmation. Kaworu promptly let go of Rei's forearm.

"Mister Nagisa, we've got only five minutes before both of you are strapped in," Misato reminded.

"Are you coming with us?" he asked Rei.

Rei nodded, already out of her dazed pain. "Yes. I want to observe how well you do as a Pilot," she finally answered as she rubbed her ached forehead instinctively.

"I thought you're scheduled for a test. Any change of plans?" Misato asked the young woman.

"Yes, Major," Rei admitted. "I have checked my work schedule for this morning, but there are no activities for me until tomorrow."

"I see..." Misato agreed before she turned her attention at Kaworu and Shinji. "Okay guys, let's go! We've got no time to spare!" she ordered the two boys.

* * *

"Okay, boys... Now listen up," Misato told them through the comlink as she watched from the comfort of the control room, getting Shinji's and Kaworu's attention instantly while they were aboard their respective Evas. The First Children was watching attentively at the activity around them.

In front of Misato and Rei, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and the bridge technicians were ready to witness the computer-simulated fireworks to light up before them with Kaworu's demonstration of his combat skills. At the same time, the MAGI was in the process of uploading the precisely-detailed digital battlefield and the full simulacrum of the Third Angel.

"As usual, this is a standard combat exercise, so within two minutes you have to terminate the target. Outflank and hit him with what you've got, until you weaken his AT Field and take him down completely," she informed. "Is that understood?"

"Roger," both Children responded in unison, as they gripped their butterfly handles with their fingers over the triggers, ready for action.

Misato nodded. "Good hunting. Now go!" she commanded.

In the world of the virtual battlefield, both Evas cocked their bull-pup Pallet Rifles and unlocked the safeties as they walked out of the giant electromagnet-propelled elevators and into the welter of buildings of the city.

"Well?" Shinji asked Kaworu, who was in the process of making Unit-02 kneel down on one leg while he checked the fire control system.

"This is a very typical mission, my friend. But somebody said that 'slow is smooth, and smooth is fast', so we may have to apply this principle correctly," Kaworu remarked.

"Good advice. You go to the left side, while I'll flank it from the right," Shinji replied, as he slowly let Unit-01 walk slowly under the cover of the skyscrapers, aiming his weapon where the targeted Angel would appear in a moment's notice.

"A classic pincers maneuver, right?" Kaworu asked.

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying," Shinji agreed.

Under Kaworu's control, Eva-02 stealthily moved through the concrete maze, careful not to step into an unsuspecting house or vehicle beneath its crimson mass as he pointed his weapon and swept the perimeter, prepared for the inevitable with a full clip of tungsten-tipped 120mm rounds.

The forward-looking Doppler radar system installed into Unit-01's head showed Shinji a blue blip on the display. Assisting the weapon guidance system of the Eva with added lethal precision were two geostationary NERV targeting and navigation satellites high above the Earth's surface, pinpointing the Angel's position by a margin of error no greater than the width of typewriting paper, far more accurately than the GPS satellites used by most military forces.

"About 3,000 meters, Kaworu, and closing," Shinji informed, while trying not to let his battle nervousness overcome his guts.

Kaworu nodded. "Roger, and I have contact," he noted, now concentrating all of his thoughts at the lumbering Third Angel coming into their view. The targeting cursor locked upon his fast-moving prey on the heads-up display, and it was indeed a huge, ugly and an unforgiving agent of destruction.

_I'm sorry, brethren,_ Kaworu apologetically thought for a second as he looked at the analog of Sachiel, rushing to meet Unit-01 once again, _but I have to fight you, just to show to these Lilim that I'm one of them for this time being..._

"I got a tone!" Shinji noted loudly, a loud ring indicating a full-blown WAVELENGTH BLUE signal at close combat range. "That thing's moving fast!"

"Okay. Let's get ready," Kaworu answered, as Unit-02's massive fingers closed onto the grip of its rifle.

"Yeah! And damn it, I'll fix this one!" Shinji yelled out this time and he fired away, unleashing a full-automatic volley of bullets into the Angel as it made its charge towards him and Unit-01. He swore that his rectum tightened up, while his pulse rate racketed up a notch.

"Take him down!" Misato immediately barked.

"Roger!" Shinji shot back, but for a second, he remembered his first training sessions he did almost a year ago.

_Aim at the target in the center and pull the trigger,_ he recalled before emptying his rifle rounds at a high cyclic rate of fire. Tracer rounds, which were inserted for every five cartridges in the clip, zipped across the city in neat, bright lines.

From his cockpit, Kaworu witnessed the whistling rounds plink into the Angel's AT-Field, hexagons of orange light flashing where the hurtling pieces of metal impacted.

Finger on the trigger and prepared to make his move, Kaworu contemplated for a small moment, thinking first of Asuka.

_You may be somewhere else now, but... I swear I could feel the hurt that you've left inside the plug. I wonder why you had to put up with so much energy to bury your past and keeping up a façade of deception..._

_Asuka, I'm sorry for you if you don't want me to control this beast, but I have to take care of your Eva for now._

And then there was another sensation within the plug, as if someone else other than Asuka had rode Unit-02. He glanced around, wondering where this sensation came from.

_Could it be... your mother, Asuka? Persuading you to suffer? And then you must die with her?_

There were pleading, desperate voices, or so Kaworu thought that he heard them inside the plug.

_"Look at me.... Mama, please... don't stop being my mother..." Asuka pleaded as she cried, while the Angel above the Earth shone its seemingly harmless light upon Unit-02 and its humiliated pilot._

_"Please, my dear... come to heaven with me," her mother persuaded, her head hidden in the shadows._

_"Die with me..."_

_"Mama, Mama... Please, don't kill me! NO! I am not Mama's doll. I will think for myself and I will live on my own.... I don't need Daddy or Mama... I will live alone!"_

_"Die with me..."_

_Asuka curled into a ball and tried to shield her head from the Angel's punishing mind-rape. "No! Don't make me remember such things! I want to forget, but don't look into my mind! I don't want to remember such terrible things! Stop... STOP! DON'T KILL ME!"_

_"Help me! That thing's raping me! Kaji! What should I do? WHAT SHOULD I DO? HELP ME!" Asuka screamed as she panicked._

Kaworu shuddered for a moment, but realizing that was going to affect his combat skills, he quickly shook off his pained feelings about the former occupants of this entry plug. Instead he focused his thoughts on Shinji as he watched Unit-01 and the Angel coming close to blows.

_Friend, I would like to see if you have taken my advice in practice... and how far you're going to think and do._

_I want to see you fight... show me what you're really made of... if you can make the difference between being a man and a boy._

And he let Unit-02 kneel down to aim. With a few corrections, tracking the Angel's movement through the crosshairs, the red Eva quickly fired off two concentrated bursts, and more of the bullets ricocheted off the Angel's Field.

Distracted and suddenly angered, the Angel swerved around to face Unit-02 and tore forward, hissing and growling with fury as it smashed several office buildings and churned up concrete and earth in its wake.

With the Angel diverted from him, Shinji ramped up Unit-01's AT-Field up to where his sync rate could allow before he took off, heading for the Angel's core. By the power of thought, Shinji got Unit-01 to pull out the Progress Knife from its pauldron housing, and the huge blade instantly shimmered with a glowing pink.

_I'm not going to... I'm not going to back out,_ he resolved as he and the Eva ran in unison like the divine wind.

_I want to prove myself again... I want to be what I am... I want to believe in myself once more... I don't want to worry about the people who hate me..._

_I want to try to be one with the pain._

Still blasting away the Angel's AT-Field with more bullets at a higher rate of fire, Kaworu never even blinked in the strobe-like effect of rifle fire shining on his pale face, as his ugly opponent began to raise its massive arms upwards, preparing to smash its blood-red bipedal antagonist.

But the Angel never noticed the other Eva behind its back, as Shinji jammed the Prog Knife hard and fast, ripping through the AT-Field and all the way to the reddish core. He could also hear the squishing blood-wet sound of the ionized blade cutting into flesh. The Third Children screamed, clenching his teeth hard as he drove the Knife even deeper into the core.

As though his inner rage had shattered the Angel's strength, the menacing creature arched backwards, pivoting around for a moment as Unit-01 let go of that beast, pulling out the energized blade from the shattered core, before the Angel finally crashed down into several abandoned houses with a huge explosion of dust and splinters.

In shallow breaths, Shinji looked forward just in time for Kaworu and Unit-02 to let go of what was left of his rifle, tossing his now-empty weapon away as the cloud of debris was cleared by the breeze.

"Now this is what teamwork is all about," Kaworu remarked as he willed the red Eva to get up on its feet. "I owe you one, my friend."

Sighing in relief, Shinji nodded before he turned to Misato. "Target destroyed," he reported.

"I got you, kid. Return to base, guys," Misato ordered.

"Roger," Kaworu and Shinji answered in unison.

* * *

The results were satisfactory enough for the two Children. According to the MAGI, out of 231 rifle rounds they expended during the simulated two-minute sortie, about 78 percent of the rounds hit the target near or directly, while the remainders were misses.

Collateral damage in the same battle was likely to be at least nine medium-sized office buildings, two defensive structures, three armament buildings, fifteen homes and twenty-four vehicles, amounting to an estimated 36.2 million US dollars for battle damage repair and other expenses.

As for their performance, Shinji acquired a 32% sync ratio, about 6% higher than the last time, while Kaworu achieved an additional 3% to the 75% he racked up yesterday.

"Not bad, considering that you've just arrived yesterday," Misato remarked at Kaworu as they walked out of the locker room. "But... Sorry, Doctor Akagi isn't here to see your first-time combat performance."

While running his hand through his ashen-colored hair, Kaworu nodded. "I agree, ma'am. She would've been impressed."

"I heard you saying that 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' thing. Where did you hear about it?" she queried.

Kaworu shrugged. "It was just what I heard from someone, ma'am."

"Well, you reminded me of what Asuka told me a few months back," Shinji mentioned as he straightened out his shirt.

"What is it, my friend?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji sheepishly smiled at the memory of that day. "She said that combat must always be elegant and without waste. Anyway, we almost got wasted."

Kaworu shook his head, grinning. "I see," he agreed, before a slight frown crossed his face. "But, wait a minute. Where's Rei?"

"She walked out of the control room at the last minute. I think she's going to visit the Commander again," Misato informed, before she guessed aloud again. "Nah. Perhaps she's gone to eat lunch instead. Now let's visit Asuka, shall we?"

Shinji nodded before they all walked away.


	6. The First Visitations

_Dedicated to the late Nick Joaquin, Philippine's National Artist for Literature in the English language, who recently died early this year. He'll be missed for his uniqueness._

* * *

Unknown to the other Children and their commanding officer, Rei was now in the Headquarters Library, perusing one of the computers there, trying to find an online encyclopedia article about amnesia.

Among the articles, she found the following entry:

_**Amnesia – defined as loss or impairment of memory: **__Amnesia is usually associated with some form of brain damage, but it may also be caused by severe psychological trauma... Retrograde amnesia refers to difficulties in recalling or recognizing past events and experiences. It typically accompanies anterograde amnesia and is especially common following concussive head injury. A person with retrograde amnesia has trouble remembering recent events, events from further in the past, or both..._

Rei sighed softly after she closed the online encyclopedia, realizing that it would be very difficult for her to recall certain events in her past, except maybe when she was in the Infirmary.

_How can I remember, _she pondered, _now that I found out that I could not do so?_

Indeed, the doctors only told Rei that she survived the explosion with minor injuries and no head trauma, without telling her the exact details or its circumstances.

Passing more minutes, Rei read more articles and journals relating to amnesia, but they all told her the same hopeless information: there was no other known medical method of treatment to bring back her lost memories.

Dejected by her failure, Rei promptly turned off the computer in front of her, before she rose stoically up from her seat and left the Library.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 06: THE FIRST VISITATIONS  
by soulassassin547

* * *

Meanwhile, in one of the cells within the Stockade, a disheveled, greatly depressed Ritsuko Akagi was sitting on a folding chair, smoking her only remaining stick of Seven Stars Lights down to its butt. What put her in this Godforsaken place wasn't the ostensibly criminal charge of embezzling of operational funds, but the destruction of the Dummy Plug project.

Ritsuko recalled the conversation between her and the Committee of SEELE.

_In the darkness, the cabal surrounded her with their stark-numbered monoliths, masking whatever facial identity they carried. SEELE 01, the avataric, glowing alias of Keel Lorenz, seemed to stare at her as if it had eyes._

_"We apologize for this, but we wish to proceed with a short briefing for you," Keel advised her, "And we have no intent to insult your integrity, Doctor."_

_Stark naked, Ritsuko rose stiffly from her metallic seat in the middle of the circle. "Gentlemen, I have nothing to hide," she answered flatly, but deep inside she felt somewhat humiliated by being glared down by those black faceless monoliths._

_Keel mumbled in satisfaction at the way she spoke. "You are such an obstinate woman, Doctor Akagi," he said. "It is quite natural for Ikari to keep you close to him. However, it is none other than Ikari himself who delivered you to us."_

_Ritsuko blinked. "Pardon me?"_

_"We wish to question the pilot of Unit 00," Keel informed her, "However, Ikari has chosen you as the substitute for the First Children, Doctor Akagi."_

_"I... I am Ayanami's substitute?"_

_"Yes," Keel confirmed. "That is all we need to say, so we will let you go for now. We thank you for your full cooperation regarding this matter, Doctor."_

And then she remembered her actions against the other Reis deep below the Geofront, as she flicked away what was left of her cigarette.

Ritsuko destroyed those clones, as they have partly brought forth very bitter memories of her mother surrounded by a pool of blood, limbs splayed outward in an imitation of crucifixion: wide, glassy eyes as though reflecting on her final gesture.

Shaken by the vision of the remains of the disintegrating clones bodies made Ritsuko rush to the nearest bathroom and knelt down before the toilet's maw. She retched hard, expelling everything from her stomach.

After she was finished, Ritsuko reflected sadly about what she told Shinji and Misato after destroying the clones. Both of them were greatly shaken by the bloody spectacle.

_Yeah, I know... This is murder... but they're not human; they're just human-looking clones! They may be soulless... and yet I lost against those damned things … I can't win... _

_I can't win!_

_When he's in my mind, I can live with every careless insult and any abuse coming from him. _

_I don't care about myself. But he... he did... I knew that... No!_

_God, I'm really stupid... I'm so fucking stupid as my mother! Misato, I was made a goddamned fool and played around with!_

Tears fell from her eyes, as she shook and sobbed, curling up on the floor. One of her tears passed that distinctive mole on her left cheek before it splashed on the floor melding with its brethren.

"I want to die... I want to die... My God, I can't stand it..." she mumbled, wishing for death as she repeatedly thumped her head softly on the floor as she cried for a few minutes more.

In those quiet minutes, she wondered why on earth she got involved with this project, taking either her sanity or even a part of her life... before she slowly crawled up to her cot and rolled in.

Now laying on the small flat bed and staring at the bare concrete ceiling, Ritsuko pondered hard.

_I wish this wasn't my life,_ she told herself._ I would've preferred to live as an ordinary person instead... I can't keep up with this crap..._

The sudden, loud knocking on the cell door snapped Ritsuko out of her thoughts.

"Y... Yes?" she murmured, promptly wiping her face away with the back of her hand, and squinted at the light coming into the cell through the small window.

"The Commander wants to see you," her jailor dryly informed.

At once, Ritsuko scowled, her teeth clenching. _You goddamned son of a bitch..._ she cursed inwardly. Her anger quickly drowned the sorrow in her heart like a sudden flash flood.

The door slid away, to let Gendo Ikari in as he stood by framed by the door.

Ritsuko slowly rose to her feet, eyes narrowing. "What do you want from me?" she demanded.

Gendo's glasses glinted in the dim light, the tinted lenses camouflaging his eyes, hiding his real intentions. "I want to ask you several questions," he flatly stated as the door closed loudly behind him.

"Yes, I expected that... Want to know why I destroyed Rei's clones?" she sarcastically answered.

"The Dummy System," Gendo corrected, preferring the formal title of this small yet very important part of Project E. "Why did you destroy them when the Committee has made you as Rei's deputy?"

Defiantly, Ritsuko walked up a few steps close enough to Gendo, close enough that she could let him hear her words... and maybe slap his face as well.

"I don't give one-thirds of a fuck about the Committee!" she angrily spat back, her teeth clenched in rage. "Because I detested the fact that you put Rei first before me, so I have chose to destroy your spares so that I could get my sanity back... Damn you, I let you take me, allowed your hands on my body, and do anything you wanted... And then it turns out that you made me a goddamned lapdog for your little helper... You're such a cold, heartless bas-"

A loud slap echoed around the room, as Gendo struck her across the face hard.

"I am very disappointed with your actions," Gendo coldly whispered. "Your excuse is no justification of what you did to the Dummy System."

But Ritsuko didn't waver, even after the pain on her cheek. "Disappointed? Yes, you're disappointed after all, because you didn't anticipate that from me, and so I threw a monkey wrench into your scenario!"

The Commander, his face in a scowl, stared back at the woman with hard, cold eyes veiled behind his tinted glasses.

"What you did nearly ruined our schedule," he countered. "It took time and money to prepare these Dummy Plugs, and then you destroyed them because of your petty emotions. That is not acceptable behavior. I expected you to be as professional as your predecessor, and not act like a recalcitrant child."

"I'm not going to be like my Mother... dying for nothing!" Ritsuko angrily disagreed.

Gendo turned away from her in disgust. "It has been a waste of time talking to you, so you shall remain here as long as you hold onto this petulant attitude," he flatly answered.

The Commander gestured to the guard outside to open the door, and without even bothering to look back or say goodbye. The line between him and Ritsuko was now drawn clearly. There was now no going back… for both of them.

"Fine... I don't care," Ritsuko shot back, trying not to cry again as she watched him walk out of the cell and literally out of her heart, before the door closed off the rest of the world again.

"I have nothing, anyway... You'll get nothing from me, you cold bastard," she added.

* * *

As the three of them walked along one of the corridors within the Infirmary, unaware of the sad conversation between Akagi and the elder Ikari in the Stockade below, Shinji was talking to Kaworu about Asuka while Misato followed them from behind.

"What was your first impression of her?" Kaworu asked, quite interested.

"Well, you should have seen her..." Shinji answered. "Ever since the day she came here, she's someone you could never forget for the rest of your life."

Kaworu questioned, "How so?"

Well... she's loud, proud and very mean, yet she had an inner strength that you have to admire," Shinji remarked flatly, with a hint of care in his voice.

"That's what she used to be?"

"Yeah, she's the kind of girl who doesn't want to lose," Shinji commented. "Mess with her and you get your ass kicked all over the place."

Kaworu agreed. "So, she's a perfectionist..."

Shinji nodded. "She doesn't take no for an answer and that's what she believes in."

Finally they came up to Room 303, where a Section Two agent was posted right beside the door, guarding Asuka's room.

"Good morning, Major. Are you going to visit her?" the agent asked, smartly tilting his sunglasses, which looked ridiculous to Kaworu to see them worn inside the Infirmary.

"Yes," Misato informed, before noting the ID tag clipped on the agent's suit. "Agent Tsutomo Kanzaki," she added while tapping Shinji on the shoulder.

If she could remember correctly from this agent's dossier, Misato knew that the twenty-eight year-old Kanzaki once worked for the national police as a member of the elite Special Assault Team, Japan's professional counter-terrorism unit. He had been a very exceptional, highly-decorated cop in the squad for eight years until a Human Resources Department officer came up to him and asked to join NERV as part of Section Two. Kanzaki welcomed it as an addition to his expertise and experience, and thus he was rewarded by becoming deputy leader of a Special Response Unit, and joint training with other elite forces around the world, including the US Delta Force and Great Britain's Special Air Services.

With such a capability, Section Two's SRUs can handle any hostile situation within the Geofront until further reinforcements from the United Nations and the Japanese Self-Defense Force could come in and help.

But at this moment, Kanzaki was a man doing his job seriously. No glamor, no excitement and certainly no James Bond clichés, as Kanzaki belonged more to the type of protagonists John Le Carre described so eloquently in his spy novels.

"Okay, you may go in, Mister Ikari, but you have only five minutes, even if you're the Commander's son," Kanzaki warned him, as he pointed to his wristwatch to emphasize his point, before the Section Two agent unlocked the door.

Without a word, Shinji slowly entered the room, as Misato and Kaworu watched outside through the observation window.

* * *

As he walked towards Asuka, Shinji felt a bit nervous again and swallowed hard. He then glanced down at the unconscious girl, her red hair in a mess, while several wires and tubes snaked across her body and arms. Beside the bed was a simple chair for him to sit on.

Thinking of the right words to say, amidst of the beeping, rhythmic sounds of the heart and the ECG monitors, Shinji began to whisper into Asuka's ear, but he realized that it would be futile as he sat down on the chair beside her bed.

Instead, Shinji began to speak to Asuka with his thoughts, while flashbacks of the girl came back... from the time he saw her for the first time on the aircraft carrier.

_I... I just want to ask... Why did you run away? Yeah, I guess... I guess that you did run away and tried to kill yourself, because you... you've minds been attacked, reliving those memories you didn't want to, feeling guilty for losing._

_But... You seemed to be like me, running away after feeling humiliated... I ran away just because I was afraid... Not much of a reason, I admit._

_Afraid... Yeah, Asuka... I'm sorry... I'm simply afraid of dying for I'm such a coward._

Shinji let himself a sigh and carefully held her limp hand. Feeling a bare hint of her heartbeat, he swore that she was sad as he was.

_God, Asuka... I really envy you... I wish I had the same courage and strength you have so that I can fight just like you... But now... why are you so scared... like me?_

Shinji realized that they may have shared something in common for a few reasons.

_Are we cowards in different ways?_

_Tell me, are you afraid? Trying to hide...? Yeah, I wanted to run away and hide... I'm so helpless... I want to get out of this place and forget it..._

_But I can't... I can't get out because I... I have nowhere else to go._

Again, Shinji sighed, before he tightened his grip on her hand even.

_I think that you may be the only one... that could understand why I'm like this... I wish I could understand you more... and why you hate me._

_Please, can't you tell me right now why you hate me to death, so that I can understand who you really are?_

For a while, Shinji tried to remember about the one time. the only time they kissed. The unforgettable image of that moment flashed in his mind's eye.

It was a kiss not out of true love, but from a bored young woman's whim. Or perhaps it was expected from a Western-bred teenage girl: liberated, extroverted, daring and fiery. The kind of girl which the elders say she's a "Yankee": Japanese slang for rebellious teenagers.

As he pursed his lips in contemplation, Shinji could remember how soft her lips were, the taste of her mouth so... different. Her kiss was a strange new sensation to him, yet Asuka quickly yanked him away from her lips, turned off by the way he kissed. That wasn't a real good kiss, for he was doing it as if trying to imitate what he watched on primetime TV.

_"Errr! Yeech! I shouldn't have done this just to kill time!" she angrily exclaimed while she spat hard at the floor. _

Shinji shook his head, wondering why he felt so nervous to kiss her.

_My fault, Asuka... I'm a little afraid of kissing you. I... I wished that I wasn't so nervous to do it just for you... I feel that you could have slapped me if I took a wrong step..._

_I need to make that up for you._

Shinji managed a sad smile before he sighed, wanting to see her wake up and then talk it over with her.

_Asuka... Give me a second chance... please... I want you back... I need you. That's what I pray for..._

He turned back to glance at his other companions waiting outside, while Agent Kanzaki gestured to him that he had only two minutes left.

_I... I still have a couple of minutes for us_, Shinji told her in his thoughts_. _

_Anyway, I've just met a new Pilot yesterday and he's now my great friend. His name's Kaworu Nagisa. He just came in here, and... Asuka, he's going to take your place while you're recuperating._

_Now... don't get angry at me, Asuka_, he reassured, hoping she would not get offended._ Kaworu will take good care of Unit-02 for you. I saw the way he handled it earlier..._

Shinji looked upon her pallid face, trying to find a hint of human warmth beneath that mask of sadness and despair. He stood up, and in a gesture of sympathy, fondly stroked her hand, letting his fingers caress her skin as he continued his contemplation.

_Asuka... I hope that you wake up anytime, so that we can really talk it over... I'll be waiting for you... I promise... I'll be waiting._

As if on cue, Agent Kanzaki lightly knocked on the window, getting Shinji's attention. Kanzaki gestured the boy that his time was up.

_Well, I've got to go now... _Shinji smiled softly, as he briefly tapped Asuka's hand gently and stood up. _Thank you... and I'll see you again soon. _

Shinji gave Asuka a last glance, trying to remember the days when her presence had greatly influenced his life, before he finally walked out and gently closed the door behind him.

* * *

Once he was back in their company, Misato and Kaworu stared at Shinji, expecting a reaction from him.

"How did it go, boy? Feel better?" Misato questioned.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah... I wished it was a little longer."

"Okay," Misato agreed, before she turned to Agent Kanzaki. "Thanks for letting us visit her," she remarked.

Agent Kanzaki gave her an informal salute. "My pleasure, Major," he beamed before he cocked his sunglasses again.

"Now let's grab some lunch," Misato informed as she looked down to her watch, which told her it was a half-hour after eleven.

But before they could leave, they heard Toji Suzuhara call out their names.

"Hey! Shinji! Wait up!" he spoke out loud, as he quickly hobbled up to them.

The normally muscle bound Osakan now looked almost gaunt in his Fila sports jacket and pants, after weeks of recuperation, physical therapy and eventual discharge from the Infirmary following his near-fatal mishap. His right arm was still a bandage-and-gauze-covered stump, but his right leg was now an artificial limb.

Shinji blinked and swallowed hard. "Oh... Toji! W... What's up?" he nervously asked. "I... I thought you left for the evacuation camp."

Toji shrugged. "Nah. I'm back here just for my regular checkup," he informed. "My leg's okay now and the doctors here say that I'll have a new artificial arm by next week." The boy paused for a second, before he continued. "Look, buddy. I want to say something to you."

Still nervous, Shinji shot panicky glances around him, before he managed to answer. "Y... Yeah, what is it all about?"

Toji stepped up to Shinji, but instead of angrily grabbing the lapels of his friend's shirt, he tapped him on the shoulder with his remaining hand. "Hey, don't you worry. I have nothing against you. You're still my friend despite everything that happened."

Shinji was greatly surprised at Toji's lack of hostility towards him. "What?"

Toji cackled in laughter. "Please, buddy. I don't give a damn about beating you up anymore, even if I have only this," he answered, holding up what was left of his arm to emphasize his point.

Shinji thought of his other classmates. "T... Thanks... How are Hikari, your sister and the others?" he doubtfully questioned.

"She and her sisters are pretty okay, and my sister's doing much better now," Toji admitted. "And, oh, just to tell you the truth... They and Kensuke don't hate you either. Fact is, buddy, they're a lot more concerned about you and everyone else here for the last few weeks since Unit Three got trashed."

Flattered and blinking hard, Shinji was suddenly speechless. _They're worried about me? They don't hate me? What in the world...?_

Toji cocked an eye at him. "Hey... Looks like you're freaked out. Cat got your tongue?" he questioned as he snapped his fingers in front of Shinji's eyes, perplexed at his friend's disbelief, before he laughed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Shinji blurted, snapped back to reality, before he cracked a real smile in relief. "Thanks again... I was afraid that... I thought they would think that..."

Toji shook his head. "Don't say anything else," he advised, before his attention was drawn to Kaworu. "Major, who's he?" he asked.

Misato swerved her head at Kaworu and introduced him. "He's Kaworu Nagisa," she informed.

"He's also my new friend," Shinji added cordially. Kaworu nodded with a smile.

Toji nodded. "Oh... Hey, I'm Toji Suzuhara. Nice to meet you," he said, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Kaworu felt flattered to meet a new acquaintance. "Thank you, Toji. It's a pleasure to meet you for the first time."

"Yeah, it's hard to find good friends in these hairy times," Toji remarked, before he decided to ask another question. "Ah... What are you doing here?"

"I've been assigned here from Germany since yesterday, to take Asuka's place after she was incapacitated," Kaworu informed.

Toji blinked. "So... You're really the new Pilot?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, and I am also sorry that I have to be Miss Souryu's replacement."

Toji glanced up at the ceiling for a second, before he talked again, shaking his head apologetically.

"Yeah... A poor girl she was..." he trailed off, pausing a second to think. "She's my smart-ass classmate at our school," he added. "And she's also the most popular girl in our class, too... I didn't like her, but seeing Asuka the way she is now, I've changed my mind... I really feel sorry for her."

"Toji, let's just hope that she'll make it," Misato optimistically commented. "Right, Shinji?"

Shinji showed her a sad smile. "Yeah... I'm hoping she'll be up soon," he replied, "so that I can talk to her."

Toji grinned. "That's the spirit, buddy!" he loudly noted, before he got hold of Shinji and hugged him hard. "You ought to make peace with the Devil's Daughter!"

"Oooof... Thanks, Toji," Shinji mumbled, wide-eyed and overwhelmed by his friend's big embrace.

Quite forgiving, Toji let go of him and smirked. "Yep, what are friends are for?" he quipped, before all of them chuckled.

"Um, Mister Suzuhara," Misato barged in.

"Yeah, Major?" Toji wondered.

"Shinji and I would be taking Pen-Pen to Hikari's place and dropping him off there later this afternoon," Misato informed.

Toji scowled. "Oh, I live next door, but why?"

"I need our little buddy to be kept safe there," the older woman explained. "He needs some extra company, since it's possible that the worse could come within this week."

Toji nodded before he glanced at his watch. "Looks like it's time for lunch," he noted.

"Wanna join us instead?" Misato asked, hoping that this might be a great opportunity to mend the boys' fences. Shinji and Kaworu nodded in agreement.

The jock smiled. "Yes... Well, that's going to be home week," Toji answered. "I'm starving."

His response elicited laughter before Misato figured that the food there at the Cafeteria would be as good as prison-camp fare.

"I think it's bento boxes for now... or whatever," she flatly commented.

"That's not a problem," Shinji agreed, before they walked towards the elevators.

"Yeah, who knows if it's stewed fish heads or squid balls?" Toji chimed in. "But... I forgot to ask to you guys about one thing."

Shinji turned to him and cocked an eye. "What?"

"What are you guys doing this morning? I mean, before both of you came here," Toji asked.

"It's Eva combat gunnery practice," Shinji admitted. "Well, Kaworu and I did a two-minute combat simulation exercise," he clarified.

Toji nodded in satisfaction. "I see," he conceded, not really wanting to ask more about their sync ratios and the like.

Once aboard the elevator after its doors shut, Shinji decided to ask one more question to Kaworu.

"Do you really want to talk to Rei?" he quietly mumbled, before they all felt the elevator lurch upward.

Kaworu stared at him. "Yes," he promised as he smiled. "But better to do it later."

"What's the matter with Rei?" Toji curtly asked Kaworu.

Kaworu smiled back. "I'm sorry, but isn't Ayanami your classmate?"

Toji nodded. "Yeah, pal. She's the quiet recluse type," he remarked, "Doesn't go along with the other girls in class. She'll just sit there and reads something, like the little book she carries along."

"And what else do you know about her?" Kaworu curiously asked.

"With the way she acts and talks, Rei is a bit more mature than the rest of us," Toji commented, while Shinji listened to them. "You don't get to see girls of our age doing things that's more apt for grown-ups."

"Is that a problem? Some people really like mature-minded teenagers," Kaworu added.

Toji nodded. "You could be right. The coolest thing or two about Rei is that she doesn't absolutely complain," he spoke. "She'll keep things to herself and do her work as directed. But when you put Rei and Asuka in one place... That's when the fireworks start."

Kaworu blinked. "Why? Do they disagree or they get into a fight?"

Toji scowled on the fight part. "For example, the first time they met," he continued, "what Rei told Asuka after that German girl introduced herself and offered to be her friend, was that she'll do it if the Commander orders her to do so. It may look funny, but... that's how I think about Rei. She's duty-bound and loyal to a fault. You got me?"

Kaworu nodded, adding those bits of pertinent information for his use later. "Yes, now I understand why," he agreed.

"Have you ever known Rei was having problems with her memory?" Shinji suddenly asked his friend.

Toji was taken by surprise. "What? She can't remember? How did that happen?"

Kaworu sighed. "Rei was said to have lost her memory after taking out the Sixteenth Angel. That's what Misato told me when I came here," he admitted.

"Like telling Rei about what happened before, just to make her remember again?' Shinji suggested. "That could work."

"We'll try that and see," Kaworu answered. _But if that doesn't work out well,_ he thought, _I may have to find another way._

* * *

In the one of the other elevators, NERV Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari was now thinking of the specialized surgery he had scheduled for this evening.

_Doctor Odani is the right woman to do the job,_ he decided, after reading several dossiers about the Infirmary's medical specialists that were given to him by the Human Resources Department.

Out of this assemblage, Gendo selected Doctor Natsumi Odani on the basis of her qualifications as a general practice doctor, a pediatrician and a surgeon, with her educational background hailing from New Harvard Medical School and Tokyo-2 University's College of Medicine.

Gendo then recalled the circumstances when he summoned the 27-year-old woman in his office two days ago.

After Natsumi had sworn an oath that she would never mention the proceedings of their conversation and signed a high-security non-disclosure agreement, Gendo outlined to Natsumi on what will be done to his left hand tonight.

It was the matter of grafting Adam into the palm of his hand, where Gendo would keep it until the awaited day, hidden beneath the white gloves he worn whenever he ventured out of the world. Being pleased with the woman's planned method of surgical grafting, Odani's security clearance was immediately upgraded to a level close to Dr. Akagi's, as a sign of his approval.

As Gendo felt the elevator lurch to a halt and the doors opened, it revealed Rei Ayanami, who was waiting for his elevator to arrive.

"It's good to see you, Rei," Gendo greeted, his eyes blinking behind the shaded glasses.

"Good morning, Commander," Rei answered with a nod as she walked into the elevator before the armored steel doors closed.

"Where are you going now?" the older man asked.

"I am going to the Cafeteria for lunch, before I take a swim, sir," Rei explained briefly as she pressed a button for the floor level where the Cafeteria was.

"I see," Gendo agreed. "I have to eat lunch later since there are very important matters that personally need my attention. As for your swimming time, that will be acceptable."

Rei gently nodded, concurring with the Commander's reasons and his approval.

"There are reports coming from the Intelligence Section and the Government Liaison Department," Gendo mentioned.

"I understand, sir," Rei agreed.

"Regarding the government," he explained, "the Diet... the Parliament has approved new legislation concerning the massive equipment and weaponry movements of the infantry and armored divisions of the Self-Defense Force, which could be an ominous sign..."

Gendo made a very short pause. _The impatient old men,_ he muttered sarcastically in his thoughts.

"And as for the Committee itself," he added, "it is imperative that we must be ahead of them in the implementation of the Plan. Time is of utmost importance, young woman."

Rei kept her silence, as she listened.

"Concerning the Plan, there is a valuable lesson about the worth of trust, Rei," Gendo spoke.

"If the capacity of trust is given to a certain person, and complete trust between persons under the cloak of secrecy is to be discussed, then I have to tell you something about Doctor Akagi." Gendo said, with his mouth curved slightly into a frown, a sign of his loathing towards the imprisoned woman.

"What is it about the Doctor, Commander?" Rei questioned as she eyed the level indicator.

"She is not to be trusted, Rei, because she has compromised the Plan, in part to advance the aims of the Committee ahead of us. Do you understand that?" Gendo emphasized, before he waited for Rei to confirm.

"Yes, Commander," Rei agreed without emotion.

"Good," Gendo accepted. "Trust is, I believe, is a very precious commodity that we must be aware of and must be given carefully. And there is one more thing, Rei."

"Yes sir?"

Gendo turned to Rei. "Have you met the Fifth Children again this morning?" he asked formally.

Rei nodded softly. "Yes sir. I have seen him and Shinji in their combat exercises at the Training Center," she informed, not mentioning the rather embarrassing collision between her and Kaworu.

"From your observations regarding their training exercises, how well do you assess the fighting capabilities of the Fifth Children?" Gendo now questioned her like a teacher, interested to know precisely what Kaworu was made of in that aspect.

"He is very good. He emphasizes teamwork in battle and he knows what he is expected in a dangerous situation, sir," Rei answered without hesitation.

Gendo nodded to her in agreement with a small smile. "It is an excellent study, young woman," he praised. "The Fifth is what I expect from a Pilot in professionalism, instead of the useless Second Children he has replaced. Now, have you ever talked to him?"

"I apologize for not having that opportunity yet, Commander," Rei admitted.

The bearded Commander adjusted his glasses. "That will not be a problem," he replied. "Instead, try to have more contact with the Fifth Children and socialize with him, so that we may know who really he is, because he is from the Committee."

"Yes, Commander," she finally agreed after giving some thought about the order. "I understand."

At once, with a ding and the elevator coming to a halt, the thick steel doors opened and Rei walked out, until she turned her attention back to the Commander.

"Thank you, Commander," Rei concluded. Gendo answered the girl back with a nod before the elevator doors closed shut.

Once she was left alone in the brightly-lit corridor, Rei glanced at the digital clock on the wall facing the bank of elevators, as other uniformed personnel passed by and chatting while they strolled, carrying their folders or briefcases.

_I must eat now,_ Rei reflected as she paced away from the elevators, heading for the Headquarters' Cafeteria.


	7. Over Lunch

At noon the cafeteria was packed with NERV personnel, eating and talking. In the smoking section some were having a few puffs of their cigarettes while the filters above the smokers' heads hummed, taking away the noxious fumes from the air.

There was laughter for every joke cracked, and there was some murmuring in other groups, discussing the problems of fixing the faulty condenser units or the upcoming results of the next batch of chemical compounds. The diners also talked about going home after their tour of duty, longing for their families. The fun-lovers would have loved to hit the invigorating hot springs and slug down the ice-cold beer at the nearby towns of Gora and Owakutani down in the Valley for the weekend, while a few lowly clerks complained about their pesky department supervisor and those nag jobs.

However, they paid little attention to the three Children and their commanding officer as they carried their trays of lunch from the counter, heading for the nearest empty table, where they sat.

While Misato was content with her bowl of richly-spiced beef ramen, Toji nodded in delight, having a tray of freshly-cut tuna and steaming rice right in front of him.

"Not bad, yeah, not bad," he remarked as he prepared his chopsticks. "I thought it'd be terrible, but this is top-class chow!"

"At least, we get better lunches than anywhere else in this country," Shinji said as he ate some braised beef.

Toji grinned. "Well, I'll try this dish for myself. You know that lunchtime is my favorite subject."

Kaworu chuckled, while the simmer from his steamed vegetables in the bento wafted. "That's correct," he agreed. "We spend 90% of our time in school feeding our minds before we dole out the remaining time for our hunger."

Toji shook his head. "On second thought, Kaworu," he spoke, "How do you feel if you faced a teacher who does nothing but talk about his past all day long? It's boring as hell, right?"

Kaworu nodded. "Nothing is gained from pointless repetition," he remarked.

"Unless you sneak out of the classroom and break the fire alarm," Toji added, before he laughed. "And then you hit two birds with just one stone. No Second Impact stories and no classes either! Now that's a good day-off!"

"Hmmm," Kaworu interjected. "Tell me, what are your lifestyles back at school? It sounds very interesting."

"As I've said," Toji explained, "We spend most of the time hearing our teacher tell us to death that his hometown is a huge aquarium centerpiece, and that's not fun. And then there are those Angel attacks where everyone scrambles for the nearest bomb shelter, so we call that pretty typical. In our school, there's no junior high school experience like that elsewhere in Japan, except maybe for the lunch they serve at the school cafeteria."

"I see," Kaworu remarked. "You also have some other classmates... or friends?"

"Yeah," Shinji said. "Besides Hikari, whom you already know as our Class Rep, Kensuke is our resident geek. He's more into exciting military stuff than math."

While eating as the boys kept on chatting, Misato hoped that her trusted aide had some more news for her to digest, perhaps more likely the details regarding Nagisa and the activities of the Committee.

_I'm sure that Hyuga is doing everything he can to find the truth about this... this ongoing conspiracy,_ Misato contemplated. _And I can't discount the fact that it might be possible that Kaworu is a part of the game the Committee is playing with the Commander–_

Misato suddenly frowned, wondering why she would mention Commander Ikari, before she realized that from her previous observations she could conclude that the enigmatic Commander was a man with a single-minded plan, but what plan? And if the plan is actually the Human Instrumentality Project, then what is it really about?

_Fifteen years and still I have yet to know what the hell's really going on... Ryoji... what could be this game's final score?_

Misato sighed, before she glanced at the talking gray-haired boy near her seat. _It seems that Kaworu really turned Shinji around... I mean, the kid is acting almost normal..._

_At least, _Misato mused as she heard the boys talking about another of their anecdotes, _they're now trying to mend their broken bridges-_

"Major?" a girl's voice spoke from behind.

"What?" Misato cried, almost knocking off her bowl in surprise.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 07: OVER LUNCH  
by soulassassin547

* * *

She turned around to see that Rei was standing there. Blinking softly, the girl was holding her tray, loaded with a bento ensemble of vegetable salad and rice, plus a cup of green tea.

"Rei..." she mumbled, trying to get over her shock, while the two "normal" boys gaped at the girl's unexpected arrival. "Please, don't try to sneak on me like that again, okay?"

"I am sorry, Major Katsuragi," Rei apologized. "I did not mean to surprise you..."

Misato sighed before she smiled. "Never mind about it, young lady. Come on, why don't you join us instead?"

Rei peered at Kaworu for a second, before she took a seat facing him, and put down her tray on the table. The girl replied with a nod while preparing her chopsticks.

In his mind, Shinji had a sudden urge to ask so many questions, wishing to talk, to apologize for whatever errors he made against her, or explain why she was a product of the Dummy Plug Plant.

"R... Ayanami..." he stuttered, choosing the right name to use.

"Yes?" the blue-haired girl answered.

"I... I... just want to..." Shinji spoke, awkwardly trying to compose his thoughts into words, but he realized that this wasn't the right time and place to talk. "Sorry," he finally decided, shaking his head apologetically. "It's nothing... maybe later."

Rei nodded gently before she took the first bite of cabbage laced with dressing.

"I thought you'd eat lunch on your own," Kaworu noted.

Rei softly shook her head. "That is true, but I now feel that I prefer having lunch with other people."

Her lunch-time companions nodded in agreement.

"Now that's a welcome change," Misato commented. "Where have you been after they finished the combat exercises in the Simulator? You left us too soon."

"I went to the Library and I looked for information," Rei simply replied. "I apologize for my absence."

Shinji blinked while his companions listened. "What information?' he inquired softly.

"I am sorry... I cannot discuss it," Rei answered, not wanting to tell them that she sought for articles about amnesia.

"Hey... Ayanami," Toji spoke brightly. "It's nice to see you again, so how are you anyway?"

"I am fine," the girl replied simply.

"Sure, you're fine in my eyes," Toji remarked, "I just got a check-up with the doctors down at the Infirmary... Met our buddies and I found out that you can't remember anything. Is that true?" he questioned before taking another bite.

Blinking softly, it took some time for Rei to think as eyes and ears were upon her, waiting for the girl's answer.

"Yes," Rei confirmed sadly. "I cannot remember what happened to me before the sortie, though I can remember people's faces and names."

Toji gaped in mixed wonder and disappointment. "Oh," he blurted out.

The burly Osakan turned to Shinji and the other young man nodded quietly. For a moment Toji felt considerable pity for this girl as he ate, trying to use his food to squelch his sadness.

_What I remember about you, Ayanami... the first time you stepped into our classroom, none of us gave a flying fig. Now you looked as if you've finally lost everything... but I feel that somebody has to help you out before it's too late. However, even if you're acting that way this time... you're still my classmate._

"I'm sorry for what happened to you," Toji remarked with a sad smile. "In case you want to know, we're also worried about you and the rest of the gang, wondering if you're okay after what happened to me." Once more he showed to Rei what remained of his arm to emphasize his point. For the rest of Toji's life, the amputation was his red badge of courage.

The girl nodded gently in response. "T... Thank you for your concern."

Toji smiled back. "Well, that's my by-line. I also owe you a good one," he answered and returned to consume more of his lunch.

Except for the words she answered, Rei sank into her thoughts as she resumed eating. _Saying "thank you" means gratitude, _the girl reflected,_ those words for the first time. I have never even said them before._

"Ayanami," Shinji said quietly, putting down his chopsticks.

Snapped out of her thoughts, the cobalt-haired girl slowly turned to face him. "Pardon me?"

"I... I was thinking about whether you ever took the time to visit Asuka..." the Third Children asked, sobriety in his voice.

Rei shook her head. "N... No, I have not done that yet. I should also apologize for this, but I was informed that she will be returned home."

Shinji looked at her with disappointed eyes. "I know," he groaned.

Misato's thoughts flashed back, on the day after Section Two found Asuka in an abandoned village, after the agents combed the Hakone area for the runaway girl.

_"Section Two reported that they found Asuka alive," Makoto informed as they stood by the railing on the suspension bridge spanning the waters of Hayakawa River. They were alone, this being one of the few places they deemed free from prying eyes._

_Misato nodded. "I see," she answered. "It's been a bloody week since they started looking for her. That's not the way they operate."_

_"It could be that they did it on purpose," Makoto agreed. "It appears that the Planning Division is trying to screw things up." _

Misato scowled for a second after the recall before she took the chopsticks and continued to eat her lunch.

However, Misato saw Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki coming their way, easing through the aisles of tables while carrying his own bento pack on a tray. She stood up in attention, to speak on behalf of her charges.

"Good afternoon sir," Misato greeted.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "At ease, Major," he answered while eyeing the seated Children, who stared back at him. "Good afternoon, Children," he added.

"Good afternoon sir," the Children answered back politely all at once.

Misato smiled after the two officers took their seats. "Thank you sir. I thought you would be eating at your own table."

"A slight change in my eating habits, Major," Fuyutsuki responded, while preparing his chopsticks. "I believe that dining with junior officers and enlisted personnel would do well for organizational morale and efficiency, so I can listen to their problems and see if I can come up with any solutions."

Misato nodded in agreement. "That's a very good idea, sir."

"So," Fuyutsuki continued after eating the first bite, "Do you have any plans for this afternoon?"

Misato cleared her throat. "Sir, I'm supposed to file my leave for today, since I'm planning to bring my pet to a friend for safe-keeping and ferry Mister Suzuhara home with Shinji assisting me on the way, and..." she glanced at the two albino Children.

"Where you will be going afterwards?" Misato asked Rei.

"I will go to the Recreation Center and swim there," Rei replied. "The Commander has given me permission to do so. However..."

There was a doubtful pause in Rei's thoughts, as the girl tried to muster her courage to say the words. With several eyes on her, Rei wasn't really sure if she could confide her words to Kaworu Nagisa, for the Commander had lectured earlier about the value of trust.

_Could I trust him with what I could say?_ Rei pondered. _He is mysterious... I do not know if he could be a good... friend?_

_Is Kaworu a friend or not?_

_He seems to be friendly and eager to make friends with everyone._

Rei studied Kaworu's face and his hands very carefully.

There was a gentle smile formed by his thin lips, and they were like the lips of a poet laureate or an enlightened philosopher. There were his hands on the table, soft and slim, like they were the hands of a potter, a painter, or a musician. His red eyes... they were warm, thoughtful and expressive, as if they were begging to open her heart.

Indeed, complete trust was such an elusive quality within a small number of people in a world of hatred and betrayal.

The unscrupulous and the traitorous would abuse their trust, by playing their words and promises, and then manipulate and finally destroy the hapless victim whom they were supposed to help.

But those who truly knew the value of trust literally kept their word until their deaths... and from the way Kaworu was staring at Rei with those warm, compassionate red eyes... he could be trusted.

_Kaworu, I shall see if I can trust and know you,_ Rei decided before she took a breath for courage.

"The Commander has also ordered me to socialize with the Fifth Children," she answered at last.

The two officers suddenly blinked.

_What? Come again?_ Misato questioned inwardly.

As if she felt Misato's reaction, Rei apologized softly. "Please forgive me, Major, but I simply follow orders. That is all I need to say."

Kaworu smiled. "Thank you, Ayanami," he answered. "I'll go with you."

Fuyutsuki sighed in relief. "Okay," he finally agreed to Misato. "I'll grant your leave for today, Major. Since I've checked the schedule myself, there will be no further activities this afternoon until the next morning."

Misato felt relieved. "Thank you, sir."

But the elderly man cleared his throat. "However, tomorrow, we have something very important, but rather sensitive to talk about," he informed. "I'll expect you to be in my office by eight, Major."

"Yes sir," Misato complied politely. "I'll be there."

Realizing that they hadn't finished their lunch, Fuyutsuki spoke. "Anyway, while we still have some time here, why don't we first enjoy our meal together?"

* * *

On the other side of the world, twelve ancient men were all hidden behind their digital monoliths, which were inscribed in red with their designation numbers and the words "Audio Only". The cabal discussed Kaworu's insertion into the Geofront, the disgraced Doctor Akagi and the tools of the Human Instrumentality Plan.

SEELE 01, presiding over this midnight meeting of this cabal, listened intently as the other Committee members talked. They always looked forward to the day when they would discover the true nature of the Void they called Heaven.

"What is the current status of our envoy?" SEELE 02 questioned.

"He is doing quite well, according to our inside contact within the Headquarters," SEELE 05 mentioned, referring to Kaworu. "His first compatibility test has been a success."

"Excellent. Is he doing well with the other Children?" SEELE 08 asked.

"Yes, gentlemen, it is correct. Further follow-up observations from our source indicate that he is adapting well to the others, especially with the Third Children," SEELE 05 reported.

"That shall do well to our Plan, since he is there to expose the weaknesses of the Headquarters and this imperfect Third Children. As for the Doctor, what is her status?" SEELE 06 asked about Ritsuko Akagi's situation.

They all remembered the last time she was in their presence, after Commander Ikari presented her for their questioning. Ritsuko had told them that she never felt any insult, and they were satisfied to know that there was a strong-tempered woman like her, close to the Commander. At the end of their meeting, they assigned Ritsuko as Rei's deputy.

"She has been detained, supposedly for perceived insubordination, but our mole is still investigating the real reasons behind that incident," SEELE 03 explained flatly. "At least that defiant Doctor Akagi has rendered her very useful services to our Plan, even for a while."

"As for our Evas, the instruments of our implementation of the Plan, how far are we progressing in their construction?" SEELE 10 wondered aloud.

SEELE 05 cleared his throat. "Eight of them are 78% operational, while the last one is currently being constructed in the incubation facility. Their Neo Point 400 heavy transport planes, along with their long-range escort fighters and tankers, are also being pre-positioned at the strategic staging area in Siberia."

Murmurs of agreement rose from the other members of the cabal.

"And there is another piece of excellent news for us. Our trusted scientists overlooking the Mass-Production models are coming close to perfecting our Dummy Plug System," he confidently informed.

One of the Committee members groaned loudly.

"What? How close? Please elaborate to us how close they are to finishing the Dummy Plugs," SEELE 10 complained. "Accuracy is a necessity in this quorum, and figures here are not based on guessing games."

Unfazed with this rebuke, as if he intended to irritate SEELE 10 for his secret amusement, SEELE 05 continued.

"Gentlemen, to clarify this for your satisfaction, our Dummy Plugs are 97% complete and functional, with full thought patterns programmed into their systems," he explained politely, "And if the capabilities of these Plugs are to be seen, once they are inserted into our Evas, they are programmed to destroy anything in their path without hesitation."

"The path they will blaze through will be the shining Way for us to walk upon to the Promised Land," SEELE 01 finally agreed, his deep, rumbling Teutonic voice was authoritative, and brought the other Committee members to attention.

"With these favorable developments," SEELE 01 continued, "coupled with the near-destruction of Tokyo-3, our full control of the Japanese government and the United Nations, and the insertion of our envoy into NERV. We shall always be one step ahead of Ikari and his little people. Since the great Final Day is coming as we progress triumphantly, our Evas must be completed as soon as possible."

"Aye," the rest of the Committee concluded in unison. With everything ready, there was no doubt to all of them that they will be unstoppable as a firestorm.

* * *

By now, everybody at the table sipped their drinks, with their bento boxes lay empty on the table, ready to be taken away by the passing cafeteria attendants.

After emptying his glass of cold water, Fuyutsuki spoke to Misato in order to break the silence. "Major, I heard that they did well in the simulator exercise," he remarked. "In your opinion, do you think that they can handle any forthcoming attack?"

Misato nodded. "Yes sir," she agreed, while Shinji and Kaworu nodded in acknowledgement. "In the battlefield, they managed to plan and execute their counter-attack efficiently within two minutes, so I believe that they can be combat-ready anytime."

"Very good," Fuyutsuki commended while he slowly gazed at the First Children, wondering if the girl still was doing fine from the day after Unit-00 blew up.

_I would like to say this,_ Fuyutsuki contemplated, _but judging from my observations. there's no doubt that Rei is quite troubled with herself._

_Indeed,_ _I feel that in her current state she showed no sign of recalling everything or asking about the facts before the sortie, nor has she ever exhibited any behavior like the last. But still I wonder if she's handling herself favorably in private. _

_Maybe... or maybe not,_ he doubted.

Fuyutsuki also recalled his personal conversation with Gendo regarding Rei.

_Gendo nodded in satisfaction. "The incident will be to our advantage," he spoke. "We'll maintain the First Children's present status, because I have the third Rei copy activated at this moment."_

_But Fuyutsuki frowned. "Yet," he doubted. "If they find out that Rei is alive, Chairman Lorenz and the Committee will blame us for this mistake."_

_Instead Gendo smirked. "That will not be a hindrance," he answered. "Instead, I think that we will be better off presenting someone else to the anxious old men."_

_"Then whom shall you come up with?" Fuyutsuki asked._

_"Doctor Akagi," Gendo answered without blinking an eye. "She'll be Rei's substitute, and I do not want a doubtful child to face the Committee, no matter how much they insist on bringing any of them in there." _

Fuyutsuki groaned, knowing that against his will, sacrifices were made in the advancement of the Human Instrumentality Plan, its painful weight hefted upon an emotionally fragile Shinji Ikari.

Yes, people were maimed in the crossfire from the time the Third Angel attacked, but there were also billions of them who died in this costly path created by the Plan, and he knew only a few names out of that number: Misato's father in Antarctica. Naoko. Kaji. The first two Reis, whom he created under great pressure and reluctance. And this time, Asuka in the Infirmary, her dreamless slumber in a white-washed prison cell.

They were statistics in population census charts, ill-starred pawns in this bloody Plan, all in Gendo's single-minded pursuit of getting his wife back.

Changing his mind, the elderly Sub-Commander also thought of this newcomer in their midst, having nothing but a blank slate of an identity, an enigma from the Committee for them to solve. He also wondered if this Kaworu Nagisa was a blessing, or if he possibly had a bigger role in the Plan.

So he felt compelled to ask a few simple questions to those Children.

"Mister Nagisa," Fuyutsuki spoke.

"Excuse me, sir?" Kaworu answered, brought to attention as he put down his half-full teacup.

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat. "I assessed your performance since yesterday," he remarked, "and I believe that it is quite remarkable that you did well on the first try, judging from your sync ratio results, Mister Nagisa."

"Sir, I was able to do around 70%," Kaworu replied. "I was given extensive training in all aspects of piloting for three years, including combat, weapons familiarization and use, and battlefield tactics," he lied without hesitation.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "I see," he agreed. "That would explain for those exceptionally good scores."

"I acknowledge that, sir," Kaworu responded.

"Very well, then," Fuyutsuki pleasantly replied. "Regarding your commendable performance since yesterday and more so especially with Mister Ikari this morning. Keep up the good work, Mister Nagisa."

"Thank you sir," Kaworu gratefully answered, before the Sub-Commander turned his attention to Rei.

"Just in case I need to know, Miss Ayanami..." Fuyutsuki said, using the girl's surname instead. "How do you feel right now, especially since it's been several days after your last sortie?"

"I am well, sir," Rei dutifully replied.

"I know that, young woman, but are there any other problems regarding your recovery?"

Rei shook her head softly, which Fuyutsuki respectfully took as a gesture that she didn't want more prying questions, for that was Gendo's jurisdiction.

However, Toji politely cut in.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, sir," he said. "But I'm doing better even after. You know what I mean. And what's more, sir, I'm also happy to see that my sister's out of the hospital... She's now staying home back at Tokyo-2."

"Good for you, Mister Suzuhara," Fuyutsuki agreed, noting the young man's arm. "I take it as a good fortune to see that you and Shinji are friends once again, and I hope that you'll recover soon from those disabilities. Your medical expenses will be continually taken care of, and we'll hold on to that promise."

Toji nodded. "Thank you, sir," he replied.

"But..." Fuyutsuki trailed away. "Regarding Miss Langley," he remarked seriously. "I'm also sorry for what happened to her, and as far as I know..."

"She'll be home soon," Misato answered. "We know about that, sir. I am also aware of what happened to Kaji. Fact is, sir... She adored him so much that his... death devastated her."

Fuyutsuki sighed, somberly remembering the last words Kaji had told him after he was rescued.

_Fuyutsuki blinked. "Oh, it's you," he said as the agent untied the ropes around the elder officer's hands._

_Kajii smiled. "It's been a while, sir."_

_"But..." Fuyutsuki replied as he rose from his chair. "Sooner or later, what you're doing will get you killed... You're a marked man now," he warned._

_However, Kaji shrugged, as if the inevitable was just the part of the job._

_"Sir, I just want to get closer to the truth," Kaji admitted as they walked out of the room. "It's the truth within me. Besides, it seems they're catching on to the fact that I smuggled the Adam sample for Commander Ikari."_

_"Yes, I know that many people wanted to stop you, but what happens next?" Fuyutsuki questioned, rubbing the reddish-raw skin on his wrists._

_"If I don't start looking out for myself," Kaji continued, "things could be looking grim for me."_

As if to pay due respect to the poor girl and the now-gone secret agent, there was a moment of solemn silence over their table, amid the chatter around them. With the exception of Kaworu and Rei, the other diners had their own thoughts and recollections about Asuka and Kaji.

But out of a wish, Shinji broke that silence. "I wanted to see her awake once more," he whispered. "Because..."

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Come again?"

"Because, sir..." Shinji admitted, "I would like to talk to Asuka, just to settle our differences... There's not a night where I'm not worried about her, even if she..." He stopped abruptly, almost saying "she hates everyone".

However, Fuyutsuki knew that there was considerable disagreement between those two Children especially that Asuka was more adamant in fruitlessly pursuing her goal to be the best... even if that effort had almost cost her life.

"Don't worry about that, young man," Fuyutsuki replied, to inject self-faith and hope in Shinji's heart. "I know what you feel about Asuka, and I also believe that she'll recover quickly."

Shinji nodded. "Thank you, sir... I'll keep that hope in mind."

"That's better," Fuyutsuki answered, as he watched Toji pat Shinji on the shoulder.

Seeing that everything has been settled with, Fuyutsuki rose from his seat. "Well," he spoke, "On a good note, I guess that concludes our lunch, so I would like to thank you for allowing me to join in and share your thoughts."

"Thank you, sir," Misato politely agreed as she and the Children stood up together. "It's a great honor to have your presence."

"My pleasure, Major," Fuyutsuki responded as he nodded. "I'll see you all tomorrow."

By unspoken agreement, they let Fuyutsuki leave, watching him walk away before they turned their attention to themselves, preparing to depart.

"I hope that all of you three will have a good journey," Kaworu remarked as he straightened out, while Rei silently put her seat back into its place.

Misato nodded. "Thanks," she answered. "Have a great time at the pool, you two."

Kaworu politely nodded, before he gestured Rei to leave their seats, and let her lead the way.

But just as the two other Children took another step, Rei looked back at Shinji and their eyes met for a second. The young man's deep-blue eyes seemed to ask for something.

Kaworu blinked and hesitated. "What's the problem?" he asked the hesitating girl, before he saw her staring at the other boy.

"A... Ayanami," Shinji spoke uneasily, trying to overcome his nervousness while Toji looked at his two classmates. Even Misato paused, halfway in picking up her purse.

"Pardon me?" the girl replied.

Shinji smiled softly. "Thanks for joining with us for lunch," he replied. "I'll see you again..."

Kaworu and Rei nodded, but only the Fifth Children responded with a smile. "Okay, my friend. Just remember my advice and put it to good use."

Toji grinned. "Yeah, he should do so," he said, patting his remaining hand on Shinji's shoulder. "And do you know what, Kaworu?"

"Is it something good?" Kaworu asked.

"Yeah, you sound really cool in my book. You're going with the flow," Toji remarked cheerfully. "I'd hope you'll hang out with us again pretty soon once things here get back to normal."

Kaworu nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "Thank you for your friendly offer, Suzuhara."

Still grinning, Toji gave him a victory sign. "Right on!" he replied loudly while Shinji nodded.

"Let's go, boys," Misato said, before she turned her attention at the pair. "I'll see you two tomorrow. Is that clear?"

Kaworu and Rei nodded in unison. "Yes, ma'am," they answered. Shinji waved his hand in return while Toji winked, before they walked away.

* * *

Once they were left alone, Kaworu and Rei walked to one of the elevators outside the cafeteria and he pressed the button for the elevator to go down.

While they waited, Kaworu asked. "We're going to my room to pick up my swimming trunks, and... Did the Commander really...?"

Rei turned to him and answered. "Yes, as I have earlier mentioned, he has given me orders to socialize with you, Nagisa."

Kaworu smiled. "I should be very thankful," he remarked, feeling relieved. "I thought he was very strict with you when it comes to making friends."

Rei didn't return a reply, and soon the elevator doors opened, the two walked inside in unison.

As the elevator lurched downwards, Kaworu asked the girl carefully. "Pardon me, but was there anything wrong with what I said?"

Rei shook her head softly. "No, but the Commander always insists that everyone must follow his orders."

Kaworu blinked. "Including you and me?"

"Yes," Rei confirmed, "even if there are any objections from us."

* * *

At the same time, in his vast, Sephirotic-styled office, Gendo Ikari could only think after he finally finished reading the stack of reports sitting on his desk. As he pondered, he felt confident that he would get to execute his version of the Plan before the Committee could implement theirs.

It was a matter of perfect mathematical timing, with every piece falling into the right place, and nothing in this world would stop him, not even the all-powerful SEELE.

While he believed himself to be a man of infinite patience, Gendo already knew that the appointed day was coming, for the Committee has shown anxiety through their voices despite the huge black monoliths surrounding him.

_Though my time is running out, I will show those unbelievers what wonders I can still make,_ he told himself, thinking of the scheming German who pestered him for the Plan's completion. _Two can play this game, and I will be one step ahead even as they throw everything at me._

The bearded Commander smirked before he glanced at his watch, and realizing that it was time to eat, stood up from his seat and buttoned up his black coat.

Walking away from the desk and adjusting his amber eyeglasses, even the most Machiavellian of leaders deserved to eat their lunch, as Gendo recalled a remote vision from the past, of dear Yui handing him a rich bento box of tuna sashimi and rice.


	8. One Lazy Afternoon

Back at their apartment, the first thing Misato Katsuragi did upon their arrival was to contact Hikari Horaki, so she walked over to the small table where the telephone was, minus the answering machine; a press of the memory button on the phone speed-dialed the new number of the Class Rep's home in Tokyo-2.

Misato picked up the receiver and waited for the girl to respond.

"Hello, this is the Horaki household. What can I do for you?" the girl at the other side of the line asked.

"Hello! Hey, Hikari, how are you doing?" Misato spoke.

"Major Katsuragi! What? Ehy did you call up?" Hikari asked. "Oh, I see. You're with Toji? I thought he's going home."

"Yes," Misato answered. "We're also bringing Toji home, but can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, and what's the deal?" the girl asked.

Misato smiled a bit and answered. "I have to leave Pen-Pen in your care."

"Oh, I like that! I'll handle him," Hikari beamed. "Right now, I'm fixing some goodies at the kitchen. Hold on a sec, please?" she informed.

The next thing Misato heard muffled sounds, as if the girl was covering the phone up quickly with her hand and screaming something at someone.

"Um. What's going on in there?" Misato asked. "Hello?"

"It's me again," Hikari answered back after a few seconds. "Sorry for the interruption."

"Who's with you?"

"It's Kensuke," Hikari admitted. "He's trying to sneak in and snatch off what I've got on the dinner table."

Misato smiled a little. "He's the same old nut, am I right?"

"Yeah," Hikari agreed. "I also have Toji's sister with me, and she's helping."

"How is she?"

"Mari's been okay ever since she got out of the Infirmary," Hikari answered as she cradled the phone on her shoulder, while mincing a few pieces of onions on the chopping board. The girl then made a few glances at Mari, who watched the simmering pots on the stove.

"I see," Misato said, quite glad to hear this bit of good news. "Um, pardon me, but where are your sisters?"

"They went out shopping," Hikari spoke. "They'll be back by five."

"Okay."

"Now I forgot to ask, but where are the guys?"

Misato turned around to see Toji playing chase with Pen-Pen in the adjoining living room, and noticed that Shinji wasn't there.

"Toji's with Pen-Pen, but Shinji is in his bedroom," Misato answered. "He's getting ready."

"Oh," Hikari groaned. "I should've asked about Shinji. How's he doing?"

"Nothing serious, despite what happened between them. Fact is, he and Toji have managed to get their friendship back on track," Misato said.

"That's better," Hikari agreed, but a thought crossed her mind and she asked one more question-the fate of her best friend. "What about Asuka?"

Misato blinked twice. The phone wasn't the right medium to discuss a very painful matter.

"I... I'm afraid that Shinji and I have to explain it all to you later on," she whispered, before she heard a muted groan from Hikari.

"Ah. I got the idea. We'll be waiting for you instead," the girl answered.

"Yes," Misato responded. "No problem with that."

"Thanks for calling," Hikari said. "Goodbye."

"I'll see you. Bye," Misato spoke before she put the phone back into its cradle. She thought of how the story would be told once they come face to face.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 1 (REBUILD DIRECTOR'S CUT)  
**_CHAPTER 08: ONE LAZY AFTERNOON  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547

* * *

In his bedroom and dressed more comfortably in his khaki cargo pants and a white T-shirt, Shinji picked up his SDAT player from his desk and put it into his green backpack. Thinking that the journey would be long, he also stuffed in some comic books, several SDAT mix tapes, two big bags of rice crackers and toiletries. The lithium batteries went in as well, just in case he needed more juice for his player.

Having finished packing his stuff and zipping the backpack shut, the young man's eyes, caught by the pictures on the desk, stared at them for a moment.

Shinji found himself wondering what had gone disastrously wrong after their brief time of unity.

Shinji gazed at one portrait with Rei and Asuka on his desk, a reminder of those better days. Kensuke had taken a shot of them during lunch break, with the red-haired girl hovering over him and the First Children, her arms on their shoulders while she smiled.

It had been such a great time when their team cohesion was at their finest. They had fought the Angel that accompanied the massive blackout in the Geofront:

_In the confines of the massive ventilation and access shafts that spanned and crisscrossed beneath Tokyo-3, the three Children in their Evas spoke through their communication consoles and were devising a quick plan for a quick kill. About 200 meters below, their only offensive weapon was at the bottom of the shaft, which they had dropped earlier as the Angel made its surprise attack on the colossal trio._

"_The Angel is trying to destroy Headquarters using its own secreted acid drops," Rei informed them after she saw how the acid did to boil away rock and steel, close enough to burn through their thickly-layered armor plating._

_Shinji frowned. "What shall we do?" he lamented. _

"_We'll destroy it, of course!" Asuka shot back._

_The young man groaned. "Sure, but how are you gonna do it?" he asked. "I dropped my rifle and the batteries on our backs are running low. We'll able to move for no more than three minutes."_

_A minute passed before Asuka snapped her fingers, bringing the other Children to attention._

"_Hey, I have a plan," she announced as a smile lit up her face._

_Shinji cocked an eye at the red-haired girl. "What?"_

"_This'll work for us," Asuka spoke, and then she outlined her game plan. "Listen up! Defense stays here, neutralizes the AT-field, and protects Offense from the Angel's acid burn."_

_Shinji and Rei nodded in unison and understood the first part of their initiative. "I see," he agreed. "What's next?"_

"_Our Backup goes down, picks up the rifle and gives it to our Offense," Asuka continued. "Finally, our Offense destroys the target with the gun."_

"_Who's gonna be the Defense?" Shinji asked, staring at the two girls on the heads-up display. _

"_I shall take my position as Defense," Rei answered._

_However, Asuka shook her head and smiled. "Sorry, but I'm doing it. I wanted to try what it's like to work differently."_

"_But it's too dangerous," Shinji warned, shaking his head._

"_So what? Danger is what I live for," Asuka answered. "I'll feel crazy unless I get even with you for the last battle. Shinji, you're gonna be the Offense. Wondergirl will be our Backup, is that clear?"_

_Rei nodded. "I understand," she agreed. The girl quickly got hold of the controls, reanimating the one-eyed giant to crawl up behind Unit-01. _

_As she watched Unit-00 crawl to the far end, Asuka visualized their positions in the shaft, with Unit-02 at the top to serve as a shield, Unit-01 in the middle of the stack, and Unit-00 to get the rifle at the bottom of the shaft. _

"_Let's go!" Asuka yelled back for added courage, nudging Unit-02 onward to the head of the line._

"_Uh!" Shinji gasped as Unit-01 grabbed its weapon, right behind Asuka and kept still, prepared to crawl out. "Okay!"_

"_All right," Asuka finally announced. "On my count to three, we'll file out of this cave and blow the hell out of that sucker right above us. Are you ready?"_

_Rei and Shinji responded on their comlink consoles with respective nods._

"_One..." Asuka counted, as she imagined the Angel waiting for them aboveground. _

"_Two..."_

"_Three!"_

_The Evas immediately burst out of the lateral shaft, with Unit-02 climbing up above Unit-01, while Unit-00 dropped to the bottom, retrorockets fired to slow down her descent. As soon she was on the bottom, Unit-00 picked up the rifle and readied it to be tossed up._

_Just as Unit-01 and Unit-02 plant their limbs across the width of the vertical shaft, the Angel above excreted its corrosive load and acid scorched the red armor of the titan. Asuka could hear the hissing sound of acid eating halfway through._

"_Hurry!" Asuka yelled as the HUD indicators screamed EXOSKELETON ARMOR DAMAGED in blinking red, but Rei never missed a beat as Unit-00 threw the rifle upward for Shinji to grab it._

"_Safeties off," Shinji whispered as Unit-01 switched the weapon from "Safe" to "Fire". He also swore he could hear a metallic 'click'._

_Unit-01 swung the rifle upward to the sky, with Unit-02 making way for the stream of bullets by readjusting its position. Now Shinji could see the silhouette of the Angel's spidery hulk, right in the middle of targeting cursors and crosshairs._

_He heard the lock tone and focused his vision at the enemy, while the world around him suddenly seemed to slow down. "Target center..." _

_Unit-01 curled its fingers onto the trigger, in unison with its Pilot. "Pull the trigger," Shinji finally spoke before he heard the loud, long blast of the rifle, emptying the entire clip into the Angel..._

"Shinji?"

The unexpected voice from outside the room snapped him free from that reverie. "What...?" he gasped in surprise.

"We're going now!" Misato called out loudly.

"Uh... Yeah! I'm coming in a second!" Shinji answered back, blinking once more before he grabbed his backpack.

But before he left the room, he took one last look at Asuka's portrait on the desk. Taken by Hikari a month ago, it was the only picture in the room that showed the girl at her most beautiful, without a haughty smirk or those upturned eyebrows. She wore an innocent-looking smile that came with a twinkling pair of blue eyes, which made him sigh for a second.

_I'll be back for you_, Shinji reassured Asuka in his thoughts as he walked away.

* * *

With Rei watching him over, Kaworu took out the keycard for his room and inserted it into the slot, which opened the door sideways.

"This is my room, you see," Kaworu remarked to the girl before they entered his miniscule quarters.

"I understand," Rei agreed, her eyes making notes. "It is not unusual to see such rooms to be made small."

"Yes, but just wait," Kaworu answered. "It'll take a minute to find my trunks."

While Kaworu carefully rifled through his cabinet for a pair of swimming trunks, Rei glanced at his belongings, which included several books, the audio Minidisks and a violin case. At the same time, Kaworu thought of what kind of approach he had to take, the right words to say to the sullen girl, a way to make her understand his good intentions.

_Given the way Rei communicates, it would be as easy for me as frying an egg on a light bulb, so I must work on it very carefully._

_However, _Kaworu hesitated. _I still have to know why each time I touch someone. I see and feel their souls, more than what I ever imagined. _

_But again, in this world, everything can be possible._

_It must be a gift._

_So I must learn how to channel this gift in such a way that it should not go out of control,_ Kaworu decided.

Finally he got the midnight blue swimming trunks in his hands.

"I've got it," Kaworu said as he grabbed a towel and hung it squarely on his shoulders. He turned his attention to Rei.

"Pardon me, but where is the Recreation Facility?" he asked the expressionless girl.

"At Level 8, in Block 24," Rei answered. "I will lead you there, since it is more likely you would get lost."

"I see," Kaworu nodded, before they went out of the room, heading for the bank of elevators leading down to the Facility. "Maybe the next time you might as well lead me around, isn't it right?"

Rei nodded. "That will be acceptable," she concurred.

* * *

Halfway to Tokyo-2, a blue Renault Alpine A310 sports car dodged through afternoon high-speed traffic, weaving and passing on the three-lane blacktop of the expressway.

Inside the car, the two boys were desperately trying to cope with Misato's daredevil driving skills, while Pen-Pen was in the backseat, strapped in, heavily tossed side to side, yet unfazed by his mistress' driving.

"I..." Shinji mumbled, grunting against the sudden lurch from one of Misato's quick, abrupt passes. "Misato... Hey...! Can't you be a little careful?" he pleaded, while Pen-Pen squawked noisily.

"You really haven't changed, am I right?" Toji cut in aloud, clenching his teeth as he resisted the lateral G-forces acting hard on him.

Misato shook her head. "Never play it safe," she disagreed, a moderate tinge of road rage in her voice. "Considering that you have a lot of jerk-off hogs on the road to deal with... So let me smoke out this guy blocking our way!"

At 180 kilometers per hour and almost redlining the carefully-tweaked hybrid-system engine, Misato bopped her horn at one of the huge Hino trailer trucks trying to cut her off. The truck kept on weaving across the lanes with brief moments of space between the truck and the skid barriers for the car to overtake.

_Damn it,_ Misato angrily thought about the truck driver. _I think you're loaded with sake, so you want me? All right... I'll give you a pass that's too quick for you._

Misato eyed the truck's movement, preparing her timing, until at the right moment of a clear path she crunched the transmission to the fifth gear and stomped on the gas. At the same time she jammed the steering wheel to the left.

With a swift pass and screeching tires, the car went through the small gap before the truck could do anything short of smashing it hard to the skid barriers, leaving behind the offending driver to shout curses at Misato.

Misato laughed when she saw the truck flashing its headlights on the rear-view mirror, announcing its driver's outrage.

"That serves him," she muttered afterwards in satisfaction.

"I'm wondering about Kaworu," Shinji spoke. "What do you think of him?"

"He seems to be a good guy to me, but still I'm not sure if I could trust him."

"Why? Something wrong with him?" Shinji wondered aloud, while Toji blinked repeatedly.

Misato concentrated her efforts at the road ahead of them. "You see, when Kaworu first arrived and I met him yesterday, what I felt about him is that he's kind of strange." She shook her head and continued. "No, not that he looks just like Rei, but there's more to him than meets the eye."

Shinji and Toji kept themselves silent, listening intently to every word she said.

"The really strange was when I shook his hand," she admitted. "Have you ever done that and felt something?"

"What?" Toji gaped in wonder.

Shinji blinked. "Yeah, I did," he agreed. "It felt like I accidentally bumped my elbow on something solid, and what's more, this may sound like a joke, but I also felt as if he was looking into my mind. No, it... it could be my mind playing tricks on me."

"Now that's really something about our friend," Misato added. "The other thing is that he's asking a lot of questions, like he's a philosopher. That's what philosophers do – asking a lot of questions, am I right?"

Shinji nodded mutely as he thought briefly. _Yeah, that may be right. _

"However, there's something else we have to do right after," Misato spoke, her voice becoming somber. "We gotta buy some flowers and incense."

"Why? Aren't we supposed to go home straight?" Shinji questioned as he scowled.

The older woman shook her head. "No... Not yet. If we could make it before sunset, we also have to pay a visit," Misato sadly decided. "We've got to make some amends."

"To whom?"

Misato sighed for a moment. "Kaji and your mother," she replied.

None of them spoke another word afterwards, with the sense of solemnity taking up the space of the car.

* * *

The Olympic-sized swimming pool in the Recreation Facility was deserted, save for the two Children having the entire place for themselves.

"So, this is what one really gets from unlimited funding," he commented as they stood before the pool.

Without returning a reply, Rei walked forth into the locker room.

"Where is your locker?" Kaworu asked as they entered. He glanced at two separate doors, one for men and the other for women.

"It could be..." Rei answered, hoping she could find her locker inside. "If I could remember correctly where it can be."

"Yes," Kaworu agreed. "I'm sure it still has your name on," he commented before he walked into the men's locker room, while Rei went to the other room.

In there and surrounded by rows of lockers, Rei began to look for her place, pointing a finger on each name labeled in plastic. There were lockers belonging to some clerks, an officer or two, several minor scientists, and two Children.

On the locker door, her name was stenciled in full, marking it right before the girl's eyes. Rei paused to find the keys in her pocket and took them out.

"Did you find it?" Kaworu called out from the other side.

"Yes," Rei spoke back, picking the right key to open the locker.

"That's better."

Rei opened her assigned locker, taking out her white one-piece swimsuit and a towel. She placed both of them on one of the benches, before the blue-haired girl then stripped herself free of her garments, methodically placing them onto the bench. Once naked, she picked off the parts of her school uniform and underwear from the bench, hung them up in the locker and closed it.

Taking the towel and the swimsuit, Rei walked one of the shower stalls and turned on the faucet, letting the gush of water splash down on her body.

_If I am in the darkness, _she thought as rivulets of water ran down her body in the cascade,_ I shall need the light to see my way through._

* * *

Meanwhile in his shower stall, Kaworu twisted the faucet, letting out a stream of cold water from the showerhead and the liquid doused his pale body.

As he washed, his mind quickly flashed back to his dim memories, faint voices and blurred images:

_"The Dummy Plug System..."_

_"Ascension?"_

_"As you wish... for the Complementation of Man..."_

Kaworu blinked twice, taken out of his thoughts by the words.

_What am I thinking about?_ he wondered. _What am I really doing here for? _Kaworu asked himself, rephrasing the question, before he shut off the flow of water, leaving him dripping with water. _Is it truly my destiny to be here? Is it to find the secret in this labyrinth?_

The gray-haired boy shook his head. _No. Whatever the Committee has asked me, I have to do it._

Silently he reached for his towel and buffed himself free of water droplets, and then took the swimming trunks lying on the bench and wore them, before he stepped out of the stall and walked away, only to find Rei standing by the doorframe, waiting for him.

"Oh," Kaworu spoke as he blinked. "That was fast," he remarked.

"I am used to dressing up or stripping down in two minutes," Rei answered. "That is necessary when in cases of emergency combat deployment."

"I see," Kaworu agreed as they walked to the edge of the pool.

The boy then looked up above the bluish-white chlorinated waters of the swimming pool was the famous red NERV emblem, wedged between the national flag of Japan and the blue-and-white flag of the United Nations. The glare of the fluorescent lamps shone on the waters below, reflecting the light back onto the vaulted ceiling.

Together, the two Children quietly slid down into the water.

"So, do you think that a little race would be good?" Kaworu urged as he soaked himself up to the neck.

Rei nodded before she dove down to the depths, letting her white Spandex-covered body slice through the cold liquid.

"All right, you asked for it," Kaworu mused softly. To get things started, he kicked through the water with all of his energy, as he went after Rei.

Together they swam the entire length of the pool, as though they were racing for the 100-meter circuit. At first, Rei had the initiative to be ahead of Kaworu, but her lead dwindled as the determined young man edged closer and closer, before they made contact with the other end of the pool.

Quickly they turned around to finish off the remaining 50 meters, and this time Kaworu matched Rei's cadence, until they touched the other end of the pool.

Having accomplished the "race" exhausted, both of them surfaced and took deep breaths as they held onto the pool's edge.

While they recovered, Kaworu and Rei faced each other, with the young man the first to speak up.

"Well... you're good... a pretty good swimmer... I never knew that... that you can swim as fast as I do," Kaworu praised between gasps of air.

Still bobbing in the water, Rei nodded silently before swimming to the ladder and hauled herself up. She walked to where Kaworu was near and sat down at the edge, dipping her legs into the water before she glanced at the young man's eyes.

She certainly read him well. _You wanted to help me?_

As if he heard the words in her mind, Kaworu answered. "I want to help you... because I feel you have problems, and they need to be solved."

Grabbing the lipped edge of the pool, Kaworu pulled himself out of the water and sat a foot away from Rei.

"You remind me of Shinji... except there's a difference between him and you..." he spoke as he shook himself free of water droplets.

Kaworu paused for a second, before he delivered the ultimate first question. "So, if you can open your heart... what is the problem that's disturbing you, Rei Ayanami?"

That unexpected question startled her. "Pardon me?" she asked.

Kaworu never let his gaze waver. "You do have a problem... You are troubled and I can see it in your eyes," he repeated softly.

For a silent moment they stared at each other.

"I could not remember," she finally admitted, breaking the stillness as the rivulets of water slowly dripped down upon her body.

"Why?" Kaworu questioned. "Is it because of the explosion days before?"

Rei gently nodded. "It could be... as I could not remember the exact circumstances of that sortie, except that I was in the Infirmary and that is all I can recall," she confessed.

"I see," Kaworu agreed. "You can go on and I'm with you."

"I have spent the same day in that room, wondering I could not remember, until Shinji visited me later on," Rei said, before she began to tell about the first time they saw each other after the sortie:

"_You saved me... so I bothered myself to thank you. I owe you a lot for doing the right thing!" Shinji happily exclaimed as he burst into the room, carefully shutting the door and the world behind him._

_On the bed and propped by pillows behind her back, Rei blinked softly. "Did I save you?" she asked._

_Shinji nodded as he put down a wrapped bento box onto the bedside table for her vegetarian lunch. "Yeah. Don't you remember what happened down there? I saw you fight and kill that Angel."_

_But Rei shook her head. "No... I mean... I do not remember about that... I think... I am probably the Third."_

"What do you mean that you're the Third?" Kaworu wondered.

Rei looked away. "I do not know why I said that on that day, but I felt as if I was alone all by myself."

"Alone?" Kaworu asked, curious to know what else lay beneath the girl's face.

But Rei disagreed, shaking her head. "I am alone. That is all I could answer."

_I see, _Kaworu thought as he smiled softly. _Perhaps I'll ask something else easier for you_, he decided_. We're just starting right now._

"Well, I'll tell you something else. Do you remember about our first meeting at the Commander's office?" Kaworu recalled, changing the subject.

"Yes," Rei confirmed. "I am aware of our first encounter."

"Tell me, how did you feel when you first saw me?" Kaworu asked, but he saw Rei hesitate, the girl blinking softly, trying to sort her feelings. "It's just a matter between both of us," he reassured.

"I... I was... surprised that you were just like me," Rei admitted with difficulty.

"Ah," Kaworu sighed. "When I saw you for the first time, I was startled by your likeness as well, except that there is something delicate about you. I feel that your heart is just as fragile as Shinji."

"Is that true?" Rei questioned softly. "Why?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, of course. I have seen the sadness in your eyes and beneath your emotionless façade, as those eyes can show feelings that couldn't be masked."

Rei quietly blinked. "Tears," she whispered softly, barely audible to Kaworu's ears.

"Tears?"

"Yes... tears..." Rei confessed. "I was crying on the day I was in the Infirmary... crying for no reason at all... except I felt that it was not the first time I had cried."

"So, if it's the tears, then it can be your pain," Kaworu figured. _I know that people will cry out of pain, of joy, of fear or anger, but most will cry when they get hurt within._

Rei lightly nodded in agreement. "You... You could be right... Tears are pain."

"Rei," Kaworu spoke.

"What... what do you wish?" the girl responded softly.

Kaworu pursed his lips and sighed, and told her of his resolve. "I just wanted to do something." He cleared his throat. "If you could trust me, if you could open your heart, would you allow me to help?"

This time, Rei looked up and stared into Kaworu's sympathetic eyes, realizing that it was time to do the right thing... for the sake of her soul and her existence. There was no greater pain and loss than to have that terrible feeling of incompleteness within her heart.

"Yes, please help me," Rei finally pleaded.

* * *

In the course of their long journey, the two boys at the backseat had fallen asleep. Toji smacked his lips in his slumber.

As for Shinji, he dreamt of the night he kissed Asuka.

In that dream Shinji could vividly gaze at the girl standing before him in her typical at-home outfit: a loose yellow t-shirt and a pair of powder-blue shorts, showcasing her long svelte legs. The girl's red hair also hung loose and, probably for the first time, Asuka gave him a relaxed face, like she was ready to do something untypical for the evening.

"_Hey, Shinji, let's kiss," Asuka suggested. _

_She felt it was getting late. Misato and Ryoji seemed to be taking too long outside, but she guessed that they could probably get home by next morning. _

_The young boy was instantly taken aback by her offer, blinking. "Eh..? What?"_

_Asuka cocked an eye at him. "Darned wuss, I said we kiss," she repeated. "Kiss, you goof. You've never done that, right?"_

_Shinji shook his head as the blush began to creep onto his cheeks. "No... Well... er, I... I never did that before."_

_The girl smiled back. "Then, let's kiss. Come on."_

_Shinji still looked perplexed. "Why?"_

_The girl shrugged and admitted, "Because I don't have anything else to do. I'm bloody bored."_

_The young man frowned, still blushing. "You're that bored, and you want me to kiss? Isn't it a bit too much?"_

_Asuka laughed loudly, seeing how flustered Shinji was. "You don't want to kiss a girl on the anniversary of your mama's death, right?" she questioned mockingly. "Are you afraid that your mama might be watching us from heaven? Strike you with a thunderbolt?"_

"_N... Not really," he disagreed nervously. "It's... uh..." he stammered._

_Asuka inched close to Shinji and whispered right into his face. "Or... are you simply afraid of me?" she softly badgered, letting her voice wrap around his heart. The boy could also see her eyes mocking at him as his pulse rate went up in proportion to his nervousness._

_Shinji blinked. "Hey, I'm not... I... I'll kiss you."_

_But Asuka wagged a finger at him. "Have you brushed your teeth?" she sternly warned._

_Shinji blinked. "Um... y... yeah," he apprehensively replied._

_But before the boy could make his move, Asuka pinched her nose and let her lips touch with his. The girl hoped that he wouldn't goof off his one best chance by a single mistake._

_Yes, Shinji had brushed his teeth, redolent with the toothpaste-freshened taste of his mouth... but this... kissing was an entirely new sensation for him, sending all his senses into overdrive. _

_Her lips were soft, moist and he could also taste the delicious remains of Asuka's chocolate Pocky... while her tongue began to explore around, probing his teeth and tongue, asking him to do the same thing._

_With that heated persuasion, Shinji suddenly thought of imitating the kisses on TV... specifically the most torrid ones on prime-time soap operas. So Shinji tried his best to do it right... even if he didn't look like those matinee idols._

_Only trouble was, he was breathing through his nose, causing Asuka to let go for a while and frown._

"_Don't breathe!" she admonished. "Your breath is tickling me."_

_And once more they went back, kissing again as Asuka tested Shinji's capacity for romance, seeing how far he would go as a boy... or hopefully a man like super-adorable Ryoji Kaji._

_However... something went wrong, even with the best of his efforts. It was beyond his control._

Awakened, Shinji blinked as he tried to get to his senses... and found Pen-Pen's beak a wee bit too close to the lips. He could also smell the bird's breath, a lingering stench of lunchtime sardines.

"AARRRGGHH!" Shinji yelled out, jumping from his seat as he shooed the bird away from him. Pen-Pen scrambled for the safety of the front seat and of his mistress' proximity.

At the same time, Misato's attention was instantly drawn away from the steering wheel, prompting the Renault to weave the road for a moment. The woman yanked the car back to its proper lane, nearly grinding it on the side of a speeding bus.

Toji was instantly roused from his short-skirt-fueled slumber. "Buddy, what the hell's going on?" he demanded loudly as he watched his friend repeatedly spit downward.

"Shinji!" Misato hollered, having regained control of the steering wheel. "What's wrong back there? Got a nightmare? Gosh! You gave me such a surprise!"

The shocked young man blinked repeatedly, an attempt to bring his senses back to the real world. "N... No... Sorry..." he mumbled, swallowing hard and breathing rapidly. "G... God... Where I did go wrong?" he wondered aloud.

"Say what?" Toji questioned.

Shinji turned his attention to his friend. "I... I blew my chance..." he answered.

Toji scowled. "What chance? I mean, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry," Shinji apologized quietly. "I should've told you about this, many nights ago I..." he added, but stammered.

The hesitation only served to perplex Toji. "What? Come on, spit it out. Whisper it if you can."

"I kissed Asuka," Shinji divulged quietly.

Toji gaped in amazement for a second. "You...." he mumbled, "Isn't it a damned miracle that he..." A small smile formed onto his lips and then he snickered.

"What's so funny about that?" the Third Children retorted, a scowl crossing his face.

"Damn you! You kissed the girl!" Toji awed. "Oh, boy, that's wonderful! Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Shinji was already beet-red in the face. "All right... I did it, yes I did it," he regretfully admitted. "But... I kissed Asuka because... because..."

"You kissed her because of what?" Toji inquired with keen interest. "Gimme an explanation, pal."

"Bored," Shinji responded. "She was bored... Well... she couldn't wait for Misato and Kaji to come home so..."

"That's it?"

Shinji shook his head. "I don't know exactly why... but I feel that she was... Maybe she was just like that or she was testing me... You know how those girls from Germany are..." he mumbled, trying to get the right word to describe.

"As in 'liberated'?" Toji spoke, supplying the correct word.

Embarrassed, Shinji nodded. "Yeah," he confirmed, before he began to explain the rest about that night as Pen-Pen plopped onto his lap and preened. "I... As I kissed her, I was afraid that she'll beat me to a pulp if I faltered. Unfortunately... I thought... she thought I fumbled and pushed me away, yelled at me for kissing in the wrong way..."

Toji cocked an eye at his friend. "You said it's a test, right?"

Shinji nodded silently.

"Okay," Toji agreed. "She kissed you because she wanted to see if you were really a man... The way I see it, she must be finding the right guy for her. So tell me, did she ever tell you any of her other dates or boyfriends?"

In a flash, Shinji remembered what Asuka had said about the other boy – a medical student to be exact – she left behind at the amusement park.

"_That boy's sooo boring," Asuka complained. "So I bailed out, getting away from that nerdy dumb-ass while we were standing in line for the rollercoaster."_

_Shinji frowned. "You cold-shouldered that guy?"_

"_Yeah, he's a turn-off prattling bore, and he's not like a real man like Kaji!"_

"Well, yeah... I remember," Shinji answered quietly, not too loud for Misato to overhear and close enough to Toji's ear. "She also told me that Kaji was her man, um, from the way she thinks. I think she was comparing any of her dull dates with Kaji. The truth is, her standards are way too high."

Toji shook his head. "In that case," he spoke, "I would say that out of the several million older guys Asuka tried to date with. I think that you may be her Mister Right."

Shinji blinked. "What? I still don't know if she really likes me or not!"

Toji cackled loudly, before he continued explaining. "Think about this, my friend: who's the first man she sees when she wakes up in the morning, yelling out for breakfast?" he asked. "You, right?"

"Yeah," Shinji answered. "I do cook her breakfast. Bacon, ham, eggs and toast to be exact."

"Now, who's the first man Asuka tugs along with whenever she goes to school? It's you, am I correct?"

"Uh-huh... I get your drift."

Toji cleared his throat. "And in the matter of your weekly laundry duties," he went on, "from what I guess... Who's the first and the only man to... handle her dirty bras and panties in the hamper?" he jested, before the Osakan laughed out loudly, almost doubling over.

"Yeah, it's me," Shinji scowled back, blush creeping onto his face. "But damn you, Suzuhara... I'M NOT THAT PERVERTED!"

"That's the point!" Toji answered back after he guffawed. "I know that you and I aren't closet 'service' maniacs, and I know that most of the time Asuka gets you fried right in front of me, Kensuke and Hikari."

"All right," the other boy groaned.

"However," Toji continued, "she could be outgrowing her infatuation with older guys, looking for someone like you, which means that once Asuka wakes up from that coma. The first thing you should do is, as you've said earlier... is to talk to her." _I'm also damn sure that she'll wake up, so trust me, _Toji confidently added in his thoughts.

Shinji nodded. "I know," he agreed, "but that could be hard."

"What you should say to Asuka," Toji continued, "is that you must explain why you are stuck with her, admit that you're the only man she could talk to and walk to school with... and then you return her kiss."

"She'd kill me if I did it again!" Shinji objected, very sure that the next one could be a punch to his jaw.

"So what if Asuka's too difficult for your guts?" Toji responded, giving Shinji the look of a drill sergeant. "Once she wakes up, the first thing she'll do is to change her mind. She'll also feel guilty for doing the bad crap heaped upon you ever since she first came here. And if she finally asks for your forgiveness, tell her that both of you have a common reason to be together despite your differences. True, she may hate you for not having a spine or even the balls to go forth, but deep inside she's looking for that special someone."

Shinji sighed and gulped hard. "I still need the right words... but..." he mumbled.

"To hell with your fumbling," Toji disagreed, wishing to correct his friend's doubts. "Just kiss Asuka again to show that you're a big man now," he dared. "Kiss her because she's a loser just like you, and kiss her because there's no other man for her to turn to when the odds are stacked against her. That's one good way to show that you can still kick some ass!" At the last word Toji punched the air with his only fist.

The young man had nothing else to answer, preferring to think hard about it for a moment.

"You've kept your word that you're still my friend even if I'm a bloody half-cripple because of Unit-01," Toji recalled, before he raised his remaining hand, as though he was preparing for an oath. "Now, swear to me that you'll do the impossible. Just say it," he dared.

In response, Shinji raised his right hand to show that he had the resolve. "I swear... I will," he stuttered hesitantly at first, but straightened himself out immediately. "I will kiss... and talk to Asuka Langley Souryu once she wakes up."

Toji triumphantly laughed out loud. "That's right! Do the right thing, my buddy!"

Shinji sighed in relief as he nodded. "Yeah... I'll do it."

* * *

Back at the swimming pool in the Geofront, Kaworu lounged by the poolside and watched Rei swimming in the water alone.

As he observed the delicate-looking young woman, Kaworu spoke in his thoughts.

_I feel that she still has yet to know the meaning of her life... she looks unformed, in need of spiritual growth and warmth... Like a flower bud struggling to blossom in the darkness, Rei needs the light... for nothing can live with nothing and the predictability of her life can be as cruel as a machine._

_She's truly fragile as I ever seen... _

_But, from the look on her face, she has faced the hardest times of her life, fighting back the tears. Rei bore the weight of all her fears, the sorrow within her heart, which she only knows._

Kaworu sighed. _I've seen in her eyes... Yes, she's suffering, paying for a heavy debt she never owed. For someone like her, I think that the only freedom she knows is whenever she sleeps._

_She could be searching for the truth about herself... or the tiny spark of humanity that's in her heart, looking for the real Rei within._

Kaworu's thoughts slowly focused onto the Commander, figuring out what was ticking within that ice-cold veneer of the elder Ikari, the older man hunched behind his desk, the way the Commander's shielded eyes stared at them yesterday. The draconian lord of the manor seemed to disapprove weakness in any way he perceived in his subordinates' eyes or faces.

His thoughts were also accompanied by flashbacks of seeing Asuka in the hospital bed, staring towards the unseen sky; the hopeless sorrow marked in Shinji's face, and the pleading in Rei's red eyes, desperate for an answer.

_I wonder... yes, I wonder if the Commander ever has any conscience regarding my fellow Children._

_Where is his conscience? _Kaworu pondered, but he realized that the bearded man in the ivory tower had erased his guilt complexes a long time ago. _The Commander... in my eyes,_ Kaworu shook his head. _He's a man beyond reproach, believing in his own ideas and visions as infallible against any other objections..._

_Such considerable power invested in a single Lilim,_ he concluded.

Instead of pondering on about the Committee's orders, Kaworu turned his attention to the albino girl swimming in the water.

"Rei," Kaworu called out.

The girl stopped and floated in the middle of the pool. "Yes?"

"I just thought if we could spare ourselves a snack afterwards," Kaworu offered. "Maybe you would like to."

Still bobbing in the water, Rei thought of the offer. _It is a simply harmless activity and very acceptable to the Commander._

"Yes," Rei agreed as she swam to his direction. "I accept your invitation... and perhaps we could talk."

"That'll be better," Kaworu agreed, but he wondered what she ate at snack time. _A sandwich?_ He pondered. _Rice cakes? Soda crackers?_

_No, I'll let Rei have her way instead... After all, we have a long way to get along._

* * *

Within the Infirmary's disinfectant-tinged corridors, Doctor Natsumi Odani felt glum each time she walked past the door to Asuka's room, ever since Section Two agents had found the girl in the abandoned village, languishing in a bathtub and bleeding to death.

The young Internal Department doctor stopped in her tracks, and she gazed at the unconscious Second Children from behind the plate glass window. As she stood there, Odani recalled more of what followed that near-suicide attempt.

The unfortunate departure of Ritsuko Akagi had left Odani with the major burden of treating Asuka in the emergency room, rushed to stop the bleeding and finally sewed up the cut. After the minor operation, however, Odani had been sternly ordered by the Commander to put the girl under heavy sedation, instead of the standard procedure of nursing Asuka back to health.

Knowing of the Commander's draconian reputation in the organization, and against her conscience, Odani was finally obliged to follow his command.

The thought of Commander Ikari's order now made her recall of what she and her surgery team would be doing tonight, and of the secret briefing she had received from the Big Man three days before. She also noted how he had outlined the surgery as if he eagerly anticipated the moment.

_The Commander spoke of Adam as if it was the most valuable thing in the world,_ she told herself. _But what he's going to do with that creature once we've implanted it in his hand?_

The young doctor shook her head.

_We have no idea, given that he never told us more about Adam. After all, the Commander always keeps his secrets from the rest of us. I've also got to admit that he's about as paranoid as Joseph Stalin, compared to the other hospital administrators I've worked for before._

Odani sighed as she watched one of the displays on the life-support systems, showing just how much the girl was struggling within her sedated state. She only had this moment to say her words to Asuka.

"Miss Langley," she whispered. "Please forgive me, for it's not my fault, but I always hope that you'll be happy and alive again once you wake up."

Odani then turned to walk away, only to bump unexpectedly into Second Section Agent Tsutomo Kanzaki.

"Oh!" Odani cried in surprise as the man in front of her blinked. "I... I'm sorry," she apologized.

Unfazed, Kanzaki merely shrugged and answered, "That's okay, Doctor. I just got back from the lounge."

The woman straightened her lab coat. "I see," she acknowledged. "Anyway, Mister Kanzaki, how's it going for your shift?"

"Quite sobering, Doctor," he replied as he adjusted his aviator sunglasses. "I wonder... and I always wonder when she'll be out."

Odani looked back to Asuka and sighed. "We don't know, but we're monitoring her life signs for major brain activity. As far as I feel about it, she's still fighting."

"Fighting?" Kanzaki wondered.

"I took note of her ECG readings for the last few days," Odani commented. "But the biggest spikes pop during the afternoon or at night in ten minute lengths."

"Which means that...?"

"She's having several bad nightmares, some of them which are repeatedly consistent."

Kanzaki grunted in disappointment. "Damn. What are you doctors going to do then?"

"As the Commander has ordered, we have no other option except to wait until he orders us to ship her back to Germany," Odani answered dryly. "This means I can't even do a MRI scan to find out."

The young agent managed himself a slight frown. "Great," he muttered.

But before Kanzaki could launch into a whispered complaint about Commander Ikari and the agent's personal sympathies with the other Children, he checked the impulse. _It's not the right time to do that,_ he warned himself inwardly. _Loose lips would put me in deep shit._

Instead, the young agent decided that it would be best to accept the official decision. "You're certainly right," he glumly spoke. "It will be up to the girl to decide when to get up from that bed. But I know how you feel about Miss Langley."

"Yes, I know," the doctor agreed. "But I've got more work to do."

"Uh… One thing I need to ask: when you could be available for free?"

"Pardon me?"

Kanzaki sighed. "I just wish if you could join me sometimes for dinner outside," he offered. "You know, there's a good restaurant down in Odawara where I know the chef personally; he'd once worked in Paris, a bistro with five Michelin stars."

Natsumi thought for a while, until she decided aloud. "Sounds real interesting. Guess I'll have a day-off in about three days. Is that okay?"

Kanzaki smiled. "Uh, yeah. That's not a problem," he agreed.

"Good," Natsumi said. "I can see it in your eyes, anyway. Sometimes things can get real boring down here. By the way, thanks for the invite, I'll call you once I'm ready."

Kanzaki nodded as he tilted his sunglasses. "You're welcome, Doctor, and thank you, too. Have a nice day."

As Odani walked away from the Section Two agent, she made a mental note to have Lieutenant Maya Ibuki come down to her office an hour later for a routine report regarding Kaworu and his medical background. She also made another note for the nurses to comb Asuka's lengthy red hair and straighten the girl's gown.

Even the comatose deserved dignity.

* * *

By that time, the Renault had rolled off the expressway ramp and instantly mingled with the afternoon city traffic in Tokyo-2. Skyscrapers towered over their heads while buses and trucks surrounded them. Loud, large billboards on buildings also greeted their eyes, advertising new electronic and food products. Huge plasma TV screens showed the news from one of the big TV channels or the latest entertainment talent, singing and dancing onscreen, flashing those perfect legs and that perfect smile.

Finally the Renault parked in a space between an aged sedan and a mini-van.

"This is it," Toji said as they got off the car, with Shinji picking up Pen-Pen after slinging the backpack onto his shoulders. "We're up on the fifth floor," he added.

"And what am I gonna expect?"

"By now they know that you're still alive," Toji spoke once they went inside the building's hallway and into one of the elevators.

By the time they got in front of Hikari's door, Shinji put down Pen-Pen on the floor as Toji pressed the doorbell. Almost immediately the door opened.

It was Hikari and Kensuke, and they blinked before the two boys, the woman behind them and the tropical penguin standing by the Third Children's white sneakers.

"S... Shinji?" Hikari mumbled as Mari wedged herself between the two teenagers. The young girl stood a foot smaller than her big brother, and her long black hair was tied into a ponytail. Mari was also wearing baggy denim overalls with the famous face of Hello Kitty stitched in and a Houston Rockets t-shirt.

The young man smiled a little before he spoke. "Yeah, it's me..."

Without warning Hikari hugged him. "Thank God you're alive... But why... why must it be you guys who should suffer?" she questioned.

"I... It's not my decision to be a pilot," Shinji answered.

Hikari slowly let go of her classmate and frowned. "Why?" she asked. "Can't you guys... No... How and when will you let go living as pilots and try to live normally?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't know when. Maybe once we get rid of the Angels," he answered.

The Class Rep sighed, before she composed herself. "That's what I'm hoping for, so tell us more about what happened down there, and after Asuka ran away."

"Her?"

Hikari nodded. "Yes. As her friend I have to help her."

"Okay," Shinji agreed.

Kensuke smiled, eyeglasses twinkling in the afternoon sun. "Hey, old friend! Welcome back to the land of the living!" he greeted Shinji, one Stooge to another.

Shinji gave him a sad smile. "Thanks... I thought you were going to..." he answered.

"Forget? Oh, heck, no," Kensuke disagreed, shaking his head. "I'd remember good friends like you! C'mon, let's get inside!"

They bowed deeply before each other, understanding that they were finally welcome, and walked inside.


	9. Between Friends

In Hikari's apartment, they were all seated on pillows around the low coffee table in the middle of the living room.

At first, there was some small talk about the weather, the new junior high school they were studying at, the little issues in Tokyo-3, Touji's checkup (Kensuke said it was to give NERV some good PR), Mari's (surprisingly good) recuperation from an earlier injury, and what Hikari must do to take care of Pen-pen. At the moment the tropicalized penguin was in the kitchen, busy eating sardines from a bowl.

Now, however, Shinji and Misato wondered how they could explain Asuka's predicament, but Hikari, sensing what they were thinking, first told them of the days that led to the Second Children's self-destruction.

Hikari took a deep breath and began, "I told her not to take herself too seriously," she said, facing Shinji. "But it seemed that she didn't want to listen, and for the life of me, she's too focused as if her entire life depended on wearing that plug suit. Anyway, she showed up to me later that afternoon with her bag... Said she ran away, pissed off at everyone and didn't want to return to you because she failed. I said to her that she shouldn't worry about that and take a rest instead. So she did… except she spent the rest of the day in front of the PS3. She was that really mad."

She glanced for a moment at a distant framed picture of her and Asuka placed on the television cabinet, both of them smiling before Kensuke's digital camera.

Seeking even an ounce of comfort, Hikari caressed Toji's hand.

"That night," Hikari continued, "as we were about go to sleep, she began to cry and I feared that I was giving her a hard time, so I told her I didn't meant to let her down. I also tried to talk about it with her."

"_I'm... I'm sorry for bothering you," Asuka whispered as the girl pulled up the sheets over herself, her back turned away._

"_No... I'm trying to help you," Hikari replied sympathetically._

"_I didn't win, you see... I lost everything..." Asuka mumbled, but her voice changed into scorn. "I hate... I really hate... I hate everybody... damn it…"_

"_But Asuka..." _

"_No! I hate myself!" Asuka answered almost angrily, cutting Hikari off. "I don't care about anything... I have nothing to do! Aimless! Worthless! Do you think that I can live with this? No!"_

_There was a quiet pause as she began to cry, and Hikari couldn't do anything except to watch her._

"_I think that you can do anything you want," Hikari spoke calmly after a few minutes, choosing the right words. "I don't blame you... I always believe that you've done well."_

_Asuka responded only with her sobs. Hikari thought of placing a friendly hand on the girl's shoulder, except with such a volatile emotional state, she decided against it. _

"_Don't worry... We'll talk about it first thing in the morning," Hikari said, amidst the soft cries in the room._

"...But when I woke up, she was gone and I tried finding her, and this is all what she'd left," Hikari lamented at last, before she pulled something from her pocket and laid down a piece of paper on the table.

Misato palmed the paper and read it. In block print, Asuka scribbled a felt-tipped disappointment on that piece of paper:

_I'm a loser._

"I don't blame her," Hikari continued. "Unfortunately… I don't really know what really made her that serious about being a pilot. She never told me much about herself, which means that there is something truly wrong with her."

Still sitting, Misato was now having a dilemma. _How I could say?_

But silence alone only makes matters worse.

There was nothing else she could do except to break open the whole story.

"I know her," Misato finally said. "I tried to hide this up from all of you, but understand that what I'm going to tell you about Asuka isn't going to be pretty." She could now see the surprise or frowns upon the teenagers' faces around her.

"I'm all ears," Kensuke decided.

Touji sighed, but nodded in agreement. "We're all in this together before, so I think it's not gonna hurt if it's all right to talk about ourselves."

"As her friend, this is the right time you have to tell us," Hikari added. "Maybe then we could try to help out."

And so Misato, in clear violation of NERV regulations, began by narrating about Asuka's childhood that was greatly scarred by the death of her mother, and how it shaped her personality into what she was now today.

* * *

There was this supposedly happy family, and Asuka's mother was then a scientist working on Project E, before something went terribly wrong with her after testing Unit-02. Her mother was so traumatized that she developed a severe mental disorder that they sent her to an observation ward, and days later committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling. No more than a few weeks later Asuka was recruited for Project E as one of the Children.

Asuka's father eventually remarried, but no sooner afterwards she became hostile towards her parents, developed this misguided sense of self-supremacy, yearned to grow up, thinking she could be free of emotional ties from everyone else, built a façade to bury her past, but most of all she wanted to be on top of the food chain.

Asuka wanted to win all the time, thinking it was her happiness; losing was a word she feared as if it was a tentacle monster trying to pull her down.

Only that psychic attack from that Angel hovering in orbit literally destroyed her motivation and purpose.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 09: BETWEEN FRIENDS

An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 3/3/2004 1:21 AM  
Edited on 2/21/2010 2:11 a2/p2  
Revised on 2/21/2010 2:11 a2/p2

* * *

Asuka lay silent in her hospital bed, amidst of the beeping of the life-support systems crowded besides her bed. Oxygen quietly hissed into her lungs, while dextrose laced with muscle relaxants and sedatives slowly dripped into the tube, and thence into her bloodstream.

The afternoon sun, its beam channeled by a series of reflectors leading down to the Geofront, was blocked behind by thick drapes, giving the room dim light clashing with fluorescent lamps.

With all of her five senses nearly tied down by sedatives, she could barely smell the disinfectant mopped on the linoleum floor; or she could little hear the rhythmic beeps of the machines, for her mind was shut off completely from the rest of the world.

_In her dream, Asuka floated in the depths of an ink-darkened ocean, naked, semi-conscious and dazed. As the length of her red hair slowly moved to the motions of her head, she could also feel the cold from the ether, as if Death finally claimed her soul with his eternal scythe._

_"W... where am I?" she whispered, amid the darkness._

_The answer came with a sound. _

_At first she could barely hear a noisy, rhythmic beat, but then it began to fade in, focusing until she could finally discern the sound of helicopter blades slashing through the air._

_The piercing rotor slashes now came with the roar of turbines, their loud whines filling out as light slowly filtered in, the darkness around the girl fading into amber brilliance._

_Opening her eyes to the light, Asuka could finally see, but all she had were blurry images. The girl struggled to focus her vision, making out the fuzzy shape and lines of a bathtub, a rectangle of white light and a musty smell coming into her nostrils. She gazed skyward, found the blur of blue and white shining through the jagged hole on the tiled roof._

_Focusing further at the hole, Asuka waited for a moment, wishing to be free of the sensation of slowed-up motion, blurred, distorted images and inaudible sounds... and she got her momentary wish, the brief shadow of a large helicopter crossing her line of sight as it flew over the roof._

_But she heard an unexpected crack, as if someone stepped onto the wooden floor._

_Asuka heard more steps echoing with increasing loudness._

_Finally through blurred eyes, Asuka made out the specter of a man's shadow, framed by the door and lit from behind with blinding-white sunlight._

_ But he was no longer alone, as other shadows quickly joined him in a huddle._

Who… Who's it? _She wondered._

_"Miss Langley... We're taking you home," the shadow said._

_Still dazed, Asuka frowned. _Why I must be taken home?

_The atmosphere now accentuated with blade whines, the shadow talked with other shadows before the three of them walked towards her. One played a beam of light over her blue eyes, nearly blinding the girl; another took hold of her left wrist. _

_Unexpectedly a buzzing sound assailed Asuka's ears, cutting off any more of the conversation, before she felt several gloved hands lift her out of the tub and laid her down onto a stretcher... or so she thought. A second later she sensed someone wrapping a roll of bandage around her slashed wrist and the painful prick of a needle or two into her forearm, causing the girl to gnash her teeth in agony._

_However, the pain quickly disappeared as her body began to relax and drift back, along with her heart throbbing down to a slower pace. _

_Asuka sensed the stretcher beneath her shake and rock, as the shadows surrounded her before the sunshine glared on her face in an orange glow behind the eyelids. But after a while the brightness faded once again to black…_

* * *

Misato was now on her second can of Yebisu by the time she was finished giving the short version of Asuka's biography.

"I'm sorry if I held up Asuka's story for too long," Misato apologized as she tabled the empty can. "It's still my fault."

"Don't try to blame yourself," Hikari answered. "At least we now understand why. If she were here now, I'd tell her to let go of her past because that's not going to work for her."

"I'll tell her that and all," Misato answered. "It's still my responsibility to take care of her. I have hell to pay."

"Maybe you should bring her here," Hikari suggested. "We'll take care of her."

Misato shook her head. "That may be a better idea, but there's a catch. Only the Commander is in the way, as he has the final say on that matter."

Hikari let her palm fall upon her face.

Touji frowned. "Now that's gonna be harder," he muttered. "I personally don't like that walking refrigerator. Instead, maybe you can try going first to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," he suggested. "I think he's a real okay guy compared to the Big Man," he added, referring to Commander Ikari and his demigod tendencies.

Misato pondered for a moment, wondering what better to do with Asuka's fate, until she found a decision.

"I'll see what I can do," Misato said. "Try to convince them in any way because personally, I can't think of her being in the bed everytime I'm there. There may be a slim chance, but I'll do the best I can."

The other teenagers nodded in agreement.

But Shinji felt unsure, as the full history of Asuka's life made him uncomfortable, and he couldn't stop hearing her screams in his mind. So he stood up and walked to the balcony.

"Guys, I need to go out there," he said as he opened the sliding doors. "I have to think over something."

* * *

After swimming, they were alone this time, sitting together on a bench outside the pyramidal Headquarters. For some relief from the slight chill of the pool, Kaworu and Rei bought vegetarian Cup Noodles and bottled cold green tea. They ate their meal in silence.

Before that, while he showered, Kaworu was thinking of the odd psychic rushes that he experienced since yesterday, seeing everything in the people he made physical contact with. Sure, he'd already saw the past in Misato and Shinji, but only Rei gave him more questions than answers, but for now he didn't want to talk about it. Still, he needed to discover more of this mysterious gift, as it seemed that even his SEELE masters never told him about the full extent of his physiology.

Now he was listening, not as someone wanting to pass on secrets, but with genuine interest. Rei was trying to open herself up.

"I had a dream, yet I thought it was almost real," Rei began. "All I could see were mere images that were hard to define, as if they ran past me. But I heard myself saying 'If I let loose, there is no way my AT-Field would ever contain it. The Field will disintegrate. I must hold on.' I could not remember how and when I said those words. That awakened me, yet I am still confused."

"Was it amnesia?" Kaworu asked as he unscrewed his bottle of tea.

"The doctors told me it was only a concussion. However, I studied this problem alone but there is no solution."

"But still… Have you tried to understand what you have dreamed?"

Rei shook her head lightly.

However, Kaworu gave her a faint smile. "You can at least try to describe," he advised, before he drank from the bottle.

She closed her eyes, and began trying to recall whatever images she saw from that dream.

"I saw myself inside an Entry Plug," she began. "When or why I was there I do not know. I heard myself saying those words, yet at the same time I felt an intense pain as if something hard was wrapped around me."

"Like you're being crushed?" Kaworu asked.

Rei nodded.

The gears in Kaworu's mind were beginning to turn, recalling whatever he read from the files on the plane, figuring if there were details on Rei's last mission. He imagined flipping through the pages over and over… and the realization hit him: apparently he'd probably known only half the information on her, bits and pieces from Touji Suzuhara and Shinji, and the rest of it, or the complete truth if it existed, was with those up high. Only the Commander and maybe the Chairman probably knew everything.

This meant that it was up to him to find it.

"There could be a way to solve that," Kaworu said.

"How it could be done?"

Kaworu took a sip from the bottle, and then placed it onto the bench. "The only way you may try to remember is to have some form of information about yourself, say, pictures, recordings, journals, and so on. I believe that they're still out there somewhere. Then you piece all of them together, and we could get a clear picture of what you were before."

"Where this information could be found?"

"First, we need to ask the right people," Kaworu answered. "We can't simply tiptoe around; we know security is pretty tight in here."

His mind was now working out a plan, figuring out where to start. First thing he needed to do is to simply look at the hierarchy within NERV: key people with access to vital information. Since SEELE already tasked him the business of infiltrating himself into the very heart of NERV, his superiors expected him to bring anything important.

But which was essential, the mission or solving Rei's biggest problem?

"I don't know if it's easy but we'll try," Kaworu decided.

* * *

Shinji was standing alone at the balcony, and below was a constant flow of traffic on the road below. He was deep into self-reflection, trying not to think too much of Asuka lying on the Infirmary bed, nor doubt about Rei and her tendency to comply with his father's authority. Sure, Kaworu asked him to try to be at least courageous in any way he can, but even then there was always this insecurity biting his soul.

He sought for praise, mostly from his father, but it seems that some of them were out of insincerity. He made many sacrifices and took the blows, but at what cost? For the sake of praise? Happiness? Purpose? Humanity?

He could remember the words when he first came amidst the first Angel attack.

"_The replacement turned out to be useless."_

The Man was disgusted, not expecting him to be as firm as he wanted to be, yet the assault on the Geofront, and an injured Rei in his arms spurred him to get onboard, panicked at the prospect of being destroyed.

Since then he experienced a mixture of triumph and tragedy, making him unsure as to where his destiny would be.

Shinji looked at his left hand, remembering the last Angel he dealt with shortly before the death of Unit-00. He saw the malignant growth suddenly turned into miniature heads of Rei. It scared him yet he couldn't move in sheer terror.

Quickly he closed his eyes, attempting to erase the memory of that horror, but the sunlight glare of a passing car's windshield shone onto his eyes, and he saw in his mind's eye the seemingly harmless beam of light from an orbital Angel withered Asuka inside and out. Shinji could hear the screams, not unlike someone being burned alive.

Shinji shuddered. It seemed that he was now being saved for last, for an enemy he wasn't sure in what form that would come, but then there was Kaworu, a new friend telling him to be firm, try to deal with his predicament, and if possible fight on his side when the time comes.

He sighed, realizing that today he was supposed to allow more encouragement from his classmates. They never doubted him, understood his nature and his insecurities, and above all they still loved him.

Love. Something he could never get from his father, even after surviving many skirmishes. Those eyes behind the glasses only told him of a single-minded drive Shinji didn't know about, save for the fact that this father wanted him to be an unlikely savior of mankind. But what is love if it isn't reciprocated, and instead there were nothing but insincerity between them?

There was nothing to be gained from his father, so instead the only affection he could have was from the people around him, who see him more of a human being than someone commandeering an Eva.

This was why he was supposed to enjoy their company today, even for a brief moment, because tomorrow there may be no chance for him to savor it again.

"Mind if I can join?" Kensuke said as he came out, snapping Shinji from his reverie. He was carrying two cans of cola and gave one to Shinji, before they pulled the tabs.

"Say, how many months you were with the Eva program?" Kensuke asked, before he gulped in some of the soda. It was a simple question Kensuke posed once in a while, even if it seemed to be very pointless.

Shinji frowned a bit, and answered, "I think I'm in it for six … Maybe seven months."

Kensuke sighed. "I confess this, but I realized how truly terrible your quandary is. At first, I thought it was cool to be just like you, until Touji lost his arm and leg in the process, only then it put sense into me not to be a pilot. Anyway, why do you have to keep on staying?"

"I'm not a pilot for the sake of my father or myself, except…"

There was a moment's hesitation for Shinji to think, before there was the answer.

"I have this… This emptiness and I need to fill it in," he admitted. "I thought piloting gave me purpose and happiness, but… I couldn't find meaning in it. It nearly killed me and almost everyone else, except there's no way out."

"I think you still have a reason," Kensuke spoke, "even if you think it's meaningless. Besides, you can't rely too much on Eva for your own happiness, that's why we're here for you."

"What?"

"Misato is the closest thing you can have for a big sister," Kensuke said as he adjusted his glasses with his index finger. "She, I still believe, is what makes you come back and fight again. Nobody else can do that and I mean _nobody_, and I swear that anyone else riding your Entry Plug will crap their pants if they ever come close to an Angel. You have to be damn lucky being with her, and I think since she has as much worries as you have, it's a good thing you still manage to get along. You also have only a few cool friends you can count on; friends who _actually_ care, with genuine concerns for you. That should be able to fill that emptiness, make you feel happy and better, and try to answer that friendship just like what we're doing right now. My father is the only family I have left, yet it's also a good thing that we're all in the same boat. Be glad at least that you're a brother I would like to have, and Hikari and Misato are also sisters in my eyes, too."

Kensuke was correct.

Shinji should be glad at least for this friendship, the little reward he was experiencing right now, a pleasure denied from him most of the time by the cruelty of the situation he was often involved in. Friends like Touji, Hikari and Kensuke reminded him of what humanity truly laid within him, and their existence and interaction shaped his life experience.

At the moment, in this corner of the world, what little time he and Misato had with them was irrelevant; the fact that he was still welcome was better than nothing.

"You're right," Shinji agreed.

Both young men chuckled a bit, Shinji feeling relieved for this bit of advice.

"Thanks," he answered.

Kensuke grinned. "It's my pleasure. At least we still remind you that you're _not_ alone. Anyway, yesterday I heard from my dad about a new pilot. He made a big splash around NERV about big sync ratios and blah-blah."

Shinji took a swig from his can, and said, "Him? His name's Kaworu and I've met him yesterday, and he'd also spent a night with us at the condo."

"Really?" Kensuke asked, "What does he look like?"

Shinji described Kaworu in detail, and then notes the eerie physical similarities between him and Rei, their differences in speech and manner, and their first case of interaction, especially this morning's corridor collision.

"Well, finally, looks like there's someone to defrost Rei," Kensuke declared before he chuckled. "It's a damn good thing."

Shinji scratched his head, perplexed. "What's so funny about it?"

"I can imagine things."

"Like what?"

Amused, Kensuke grinned as he shook his head. "This might be too much of a coincidence, but from the looks of it either they're twins or look like husband and wife."

"I know. Touji noticed that while we were eating lunch back there."

"Since you've said that Kaworu has red eyes, and we know that Rei also has red eyes, and both of them are almost albino and have strange hair, isn't it very weird?"

It was true that Shinji recently seen only half of the oddities inside the Geofront, some of them were repelling or gruesome enough to send him shutting his eyes away, and some of them still left him with more questions than answers.

However, Shinji wasn't aware that at this moment Kaworu was trying to resolve Rei's problem despite being an enigma himself.

* * *

"Doctor, this is what I called you in for," Gendo Ikari spoke before Natsumi Odani, who was standing in attention, trying not to be distracted by the mysterious Sephirotic diagrams on the floor and the ceiling of his "throne room".

On his desk was her preliminary report for the surgical operation to be done tonight. So far, this was the second time she was in this office, and a privileged few have ever been summoned to be here.

"To be sure, sir," Natsumi answered. "I have prepared the operating theater for tonight, along with the best available security I requested to make sure there will be no leaks. Everyone else involved will be briefed, and should anything goes wrong, we'll try to bring your hand back to normal." Natsumi gestured at the report on the desk, which Gendo began to read. "Testing results in that report has indicated that there should be no rejection problem with you, the biological host, and the 'special guest'."

The "special guest" was the Adam embryo that Gendo was to be a host to, the one that he requested Ryouji Kaji to acquire at great cost.

"Go on," Gendo said.

"We'll try to use skin grafts from your back and a biologically-neutral elastic membrane to hold it down, and then seal it with a laser at a moderate power setting. There will be some bleeding, but overall it should heal quickly, and if both of you are biologically compatible, the guest should merge into your palm in a week."

Gendo nodded. "Good. I'll have no problem with concealment. Since you are concerned about my well-being during the course of the operation, I understand with the knowledge of anaesthetics, that I have not consumed anything before this operation."

Natsumi briefly noticed a shining glint coming off Ikari's glasses, as he seemed to be pleased with high expectations for tonight.

"Thank you for having that foresight, Commander," she replied.

"Finally, you'll have full clearance on whatever you need to ensure that this operation is a success. I have full trust in your abilities, just as your job description says."

* * *

Inside the main NERV building, at the bank of elevators in its atrium, Kaworu and Rei were facing each other as they were about to part. There was this expressionless calm on Rei's face, yet Kaworu knew inside that she has this little feeling of relief as he noticed her eyes.

"I hoped that you're okay this time," Kaworu said. "But just as I said before, I'll see what I could do. Maybe for the rest of the day you'll do fine."

"Thank you," Rei answered.

Without much ado, Kaworu slowly reached out for her left hand and held it softly.

This time, unlike that psychic torrent that he earlier experienced and nearly overwhelmed him, he could now sense serenity within her, like a calm sea on high noon of blue skies, but there were no flashbacks. Happy or relieved or satisfied, he couldn't tell, but only her cerise eyes said to him that she was all right.

This physical bond lasted for almost a minute, and they never moved an inch.

Now Kaworu let go of her hand. "Take good care," he reassured as the elevator doors opened before him.

"Thank you. I will see you tomorrow," Rei replied before the doors closed.

* * *

As the elevator lurched upward, Kaworu thought of whom he'll need to get some information on Rei, but the easiest place to start is with Misato.

_Maybe easy, _he contemplated, _but I suppose that I have to convince her. After all, she's probably the only one who has more knowledge about Rei than what I possess right now. I can't just simply go around and sneak into someone's files. _Kaworu just needed the right way of approaching the idea, but the last mess he wanted was blowing up his own cover.

By the time he was in his little living quarters, Kaworu grabbed a pen and a pad, and began writing down everything he knew. He made a rough outline:

_Rei: emotionless, has no idea of her past due to last mission. Needs help recovering memories... At any rate, she's learning._

_Asuka: personal anger over loss of piloting ability. Almost killed herself. If wakes up must realize her personal self-worth. Life worth living for._

_Shinji: much of a worrier. Fears father. He needs encouragement. Have to let go of his past._

_Misato: the past makes her a prisoner. Loss of Kaji cause of depression, but she tries to hide it._

Kaworu brushed his hand over those gray tufts of hair, thinking. He then marked Misato's name with "1", assigned Rei a number "2", Shinji as number "3", and finally Asuka was given a "4".

On that order, if he managed to persuade Misato to overcome her personal problems, she'll help him out deal with Rei; once he gets Rei a complete picture of her past, the next step is to end Shinji's self-misery, and he'll have to get Asuka in a very long conversation as an outlet for personal self-examination or at least give her some sense.

"Tomorrow," Kaworu told himself. "Tomorrow is where I'll start," he repeated.

* * *

In his office and while pacing around the desk, killing time, Gendo Ikari was toying with a new idea that came up just after Natsumi Odani left.

The scheme involved having Rei to have a compatibility test with Unit-01, and since this time she didn't have any of the "defects" that her predecessor possessed, her "renewed purity" would be helpful in trying to get his own Dummy Plug project back in working order. Furthermore, Kaworu Nagisa and his surprising statistics gave him more impetus to make new improvements.

The last time was a series of unacceptable and costly failures. But if that new test succeeded, he'll try to restart the program once more with better data. Have a team of bioengineers reclone Rei and put each and every one of her in the Plugs, and show SEELE who's the winner. That would be one chance to make a sure return on his investment.

Gendo promptly took one of the phones on his desk and dialled.

"Get me the head of Bioengineering," he said into the reciever, "and whoever is in charge of the Test Facility. I want them here."

* * *

While Hikari was having her turn playing with Pen-Pen, Misato pulled Touji aside to the corridor leading to the bathroom, and whispered into his ear.

"Sorry," she said almost quietly. "For his sake, I'm not going to repeat what I said about Kaji."

Touji frowned. "Why?"

Misato shook her head. "I don't want to get any more emo on this while we had our lunch. I'm not going to add more misery to your girlfriend's mood, especially after we talked about Asuka. So we'll have to keep quiet."

After a brief thought, he agreed. "Okay, if that's what you want."

"Thanks," Misato answered.

Just as she was done, Shinji and Kensuke were back inside with their empty cans of cola, which they tossed into the wastebasket. Both of them were giddy about having some fun, to lighten up the mood.

"Hey, thought we might get that 720 running," Kensuke said, inviting for a multiplayer game as he pointed at the Xbox 720 sitting besides the TV set. "It's still early out here, so who wants to try? We also have Rock Band if you like."

Everyone in the room suddenly wanted to play, and Shinji was aching for a real challenge, something to get his mind off the pain. But Misato needed something else to do, as she felt the vibration coming from her cellular phone.

"I'll pass," she reminded Kensuke. "I have to talk to someone outside."

Kensuke gave her a thumbs-up. "Sure, Big Sister, no problem," he answered before heading off to the bedroom to get the Rock Band instruments out of the box.

* * *

Once out on the balcony and she closed the sliding door, Misato noticed Makoto Hyuga's number on display, pressed _Call_, and to be sure she also activated the scrambler.

"Hi. Are you there?" Misato asked. "I'm ready... Sorry if I sound gloomy."

"All right... I'm on a small break, right outside and drinking coffee and I got some more data I've swiped a few minutes ago," he answered. "Managed to break into Maya's notebook and copied the stuff, and you know what I've found out? Nagisa is capable of doing the theoretically impossible."

"Speak in Japanese," Misato chided him for clarity's sake. "Slow down."

"Sorry about that... Judging from what I've skimmed," Makoto explained carefully, "he can keep his sync lowered down to as low as 20 percent to give an Angel an impression that he's easy game."

"What happens next?"

"And then the next big thing, yes, this is the real whopper... Nagisa can jam up his sync ratio up to around 90 percent or even higher, enough power to cut a big hole into an AT-Field and blow the Angel to kingdom come."

Misato blinked. "Come again?"

"Nagisa can adjust his sync ratio by complete will, as simple to him as flipping TV channels… or maybe able to walk on water."

"But that's unbelievable!" she disagreed.

"And we can see a blue moon once in a while, Major," Makoto countered. "But although the data are just the preliminaries, it's almost clear to see what else he actually has in store for us, but we'll need more sync tests to be done on him for the next few days to make sure."

"Right," Misato agreed. "He's bidding his time, but don't worry, we'll always keep an eye on him."

"Anyway, since you want to see more of what I got, I'm sending you the biggie right now," Makoto said.

A second later Misato could see data being uploaded into her phone's flash memory, before she heard a chime. _Download complete._

"I got it now," she confirmed. "I'll check it out tonight."

"Thanks, Major. Good luck on your way home."

"Thanks to you, too, I'll see you tomorrow. Carry on the good work," Misato concluded.

Right there, Misato was now thinking as she pocketed the phone, and she'll have to know where to start asking questions. Naturally the one person on her mind she would get her an answer was Ritsuko, but there could be one better way:

At the right moment, she'll confront and grill Kaworu Nagisa on her own terms, demanding what were his true intentions for being here and who's really pulling his strings.

* * *

In her lonely and cracked apartment, far away from everyone else, silence once again dominated Rei Ayanami's world as she sat on the side of her bed, save for the two refrigerators with their muffled compressor hums. Thinking of herself and that gnawing emptiness within since the day she walked out of the Infirmary. Doubts and questions of self-worth bothered her most of the time, pondering the meaning and purpose of her life.

Today, however, Kaworu Nagisa changed all that.

Though unable to express herself outwardly, Rei could still savor the warmth and feeling of Kaworu's hand, long after they parted at the atrium. His hand was soft, much different from the calloused palms and fingers of the Commander. The aftereffect of such physical contact, it seemed for her, overpowered the strange odor emanating from that box full of bloodied old bandages and the packed wastebasket. Even the decay and dirt around the room no longer mattered.

She could feel the answer to her anguish was forthcoming, and the one that would fill the vast void in her beating heart.

She could not smile but serenity dominated her soul.

For the first time in days, Rei thought she could sleep peacefully tonight.

* * *

Before leaving, Misato and Shinji exchanged goodbyes with their friends, with the woman kneeling down and whispering promises to Pen-Pen that she'll come back.

"Hey, promise that you guys come back," Touji said. "You're not so bad playing, considering that you haven't got an Xbox of your own."

"Shinji nodded. "Thanks, and speaking of coming back, we'll see."

"Tell Asuka to get well," Hikari added, before she hugged him. "Don't quit."

Misato pointed a finger at Hikari and said, "Take good care of Pen-Pen."

Kensuke grinned. "We'll do, this little fella will do fine… and oh, try to bring Asuka and Rei with you."

Misato grinned. "Sure, no problem. We'll see you soon. Touji, get well. Watch out wherever you're walking."

"I'll be careful," Touji answered and then laughed.

They all exchanged hugs and back-claps, and for Shinji, brotherly kisses on the cheek from Hikari and Mari.

As they walked away, Misato checked her watch and figured that she and Shinji still have enough time to make it to the cemetery, which was halfway between here and just north of Tokyo-3. For the first time in weeks both of them felt much better, and this morale boost also gave Misato the courage to visit Kaji's grave.

* * *

While lying on his futon, Kaworu thought about the first report he would have to address before the SEELE council tonight. Of course, he'll tell them about the current status of his work, but only what they _wanted_ to hear. Good thing and so far they've kept him alone as he did his duty at their bidding.

Lying besides him was a detailed contour map of the Hakone area, a set of orbital coordinates for the geostationary communication satellites he would be using, and a list of transit times. He'd encircled the data he needed with a pen, and set his alarm clock so it'll tell him when to wake up and go.

Kaworu closed his eyes and thought of the two days that passed since his arrival. He also had in his mind's eye the psychic images that comprised of Misato's and Shinji's memories, mostly tragedies in their respect pasts, and their thoughts. They had mixed hopes and aspirations, the longing and the pain, and what conflicts that were tearing their souls apart.

Only with Rei that he found only a few pieces within her. Try as he could, most of the jigsaw puzzle pieces of her memories were missing. There was also the silent anguish, and above all, the seemingly endless loop of self-doubt, as she was trying to assess her personal self-worth.

It struck him as strange that the most imperfect people were chosen to be Eva pilots.

Why?

Is it because only when they were at their emotional extremes that they could link themselves more easily to the Evas?

Yes.

Considering that Evas were always linked and controlled through the A-10 nerve, and humans normally use about twenty percent of their brain power, Kaworu concluded that the brain waves of the pilots are greatly amplified during heightened emotional or psychological states, increasing control capability; hence their sync ratios could be measured based by the amount of bioelectrical and nerve impulses.

There was always a price to be paid for being one of the Children: they have to possess self-imperfection to operate the Evas, especially when there was either pain or pleasure involved.

Both pleasure and pain, it was also one of the natural inner imperfections of the Lilim, intertwined since birth till death; one begets the other as part of the universal opposites.

* * *

Before they came to the cemetery, Misato made a few stops to the grocery for a carton of premium sake, a flower shop for two bouquets and a bundle of joss sticks, then had her Renault refueled at a service station.

This cemetery alone held more than half a million dead, and there were dozens of cemeteries such as this one throughout Japan, most of them for the victims of the Second Impact tsunami, the riots that followed, and North Korea's nuclear missile strike against Tokyo. In the middle of the cemetery was a Shinto shrine, dedicated to its silent residents six feet below and encapsuled in small white boxes.

Now, here they were standing before Ryoji Kaji's grave. The dirt on the plot was almost fresh, about two weeks old, and the engrave tombstone with his name on was shiny-new except for the thin coating of dust.

In her mind, Misato replayed the tape recording:

"_Misato, it's me. I'm sure you're listening to this message, after I caused you so much trouble. Sorry. Please tell Ritsuko that I'm really sorry. And there's one more thing to trouble you with: I've been growing flowers. I'd appreciate it if you could water the flowers for me. Shinji knows where they are. The truth is with you. Don't hesitate. Just move ahead!"_

_There was a second of hesitation before Kaji spoke again._

"_If I can see you again, I promise that I will say the words that I couldn't say to you eight years ago. Bye."_

"Sorry too if we're a bit late," Misato said almost quietly. "I don't think you're concerned with time anymore. My concerns right now are justice and the truth you're saying about."

With care, Misato laid down the bouquet of lilies and roses before the tombstone, lit and planted some joss sticks, and they settled down for a quiet prayer with her palms together. Once done, with the carton of sake as her tribute, she uncorked it and poured the sake onto the tombstone. The clear wine washed away the collected reddish dust from the black marble, making it gleam in the afternoon sun like new.

"Cheers," Misato spoke. "I hope you can enjoy it."

Shinji said nothing, but he went to his mother's grave, which was three plots away, and laid the flowers and stuck smoking joss sticks into the soil. For him, it no longer mattered if that grave never contained Yui Ikari's remains. All he needed was to pay some respect as he stood there. He recalled the last time he talked with someone while standing here.

"_It's been three years since the last time I was here with you alone," Gendo said almost quietly. At a distance, he stood before the gravestone, but there was little of emotion on his face, and even the eyes behind the glasses betrayed nothing._

_But Shinji kept a respectable distance from him. He was morose and he was aware of the pain of being here._

"_I ran away," he said, "I've never tried to come here till now. I don't think she rests here, and I don't even remember her face."_

"_People continue to live by moving on," Gendo answered. "Nevertheless, we have something that we always have to remember. Your mother let me know of that useful fact, and to make sure of that I come here out of respect."_

_Shinji turned to face his father. "Don't you have her picture or something?" he asked._

_Gendo shook his head, as if the question wasn't of his concern. "She's not here," he replied flatly. "There's only her gravestone as a reminder."_

_The young man sighed. "My teacher used to say that you have to let go."_

_There was no silence between them, letting the words sink in their thoughts, before Gendo broke the silence._

"_The important thing is that I'm content enough to remember," he answered._

"At least you still remember," Misato said, taking him away from his reflection. "When the last time you saw her smile?"

Shinji shrugged, but trying to recollect. "I don't know. Maybe I was five."

Misato sighed. "Just wishing I should've met your mom a long time ago."

"Why?"

"She's a legend in her own right. Knew what she was doing even if it was dangerous and impossible, and everyone else would've backed out from the job she was in. The one thing that bothered me about her was that I've yet to ask the Sub-Commander, because he's the other one most close to her, apart from your father, and probably knows her intimately."

"But why he's still quiet about my mother?"

Misato shook her head. "Still probably out of respect or, worse yet, fear for your father and his work. Nevertheless and lately, given how things are becoming strained, and how he's acting, I have that woman's intuition: they have very different ideas on where NERV should be heading. The Sub-Commander isn't happy getting along with your father, and so perhaps that's why he's a little more frank while we were eating with him."

Shinji nodded. "One question," he spoke, changing the subject. "Has anyone told you who actually killed Kaji?"

"I knew the details from the Sub-Commander, who did the identification after he was called up by the coroner," Misato said, recalling the autopsy and forensics reports. "Three hollowpoint slugs, he mentioned. Post-mortem, the coroner pulled two from the chest cavity and one from the head. Nine-millimeter rounds with grooves on the slugs. Ballistic testing and identification confirmed that it was from a 92F Beretta... Silenced, I think. It was a close-up shot and there was no struggle, because it seems that Kaji knew his killer, and his gun was still stuck into the waist holster… But, all in all, they couldn't identify the shooter and they're still looking into leads."

She, however, left out this part: throughout the questioning by Section Two, she kept her composure from cracking as she examined the gruesome photos of the murder scene, and only upon returning home afterwards she managed to cry and mourn in her bedroom.

Misato pursed her lips for a moment. "Since it's taking too long finding this murderer, then I'll do the hunting myself... and maybe kill the sonofabitch," she added.

There would be no crying anymore. Revenge was now driving her.

_And once I have all the pieces together,_ Misato thought,_ I'll also make a dead man speak._

* * *

The man who shot Kaji was in the driver's seat of his Toyota utility van, listening to the radio (covering an exhibition baseball game between the Buffalo Yankees and the Hanshin Tigers) while eating an early dinner from a bento box picked up from the local Lawson's convenience store. He was dressed as a telephone utility man with a false name, and clipped to his right ear was a Bluetooth earset.

Apart from his scrambler-enabled cellular phone resting on its cradle as it was being charged, there was also a black-toned Beretta 92F pistol just below his seat, with a new barrel and a sound suppressor screwed in. Mounted to the center console was a notebook computer turned on and with live access to wireless Internet tapped into the local NTT network. On the passenger seat, for his personal entertainment, laid a dog-eared, two-month-old copy of _Sabra_ magazine with Maria Ozawa on its cover.

At the back of the van was mostly packed with telephone maintenance equipment, harnesses and rolls of wire, and this vehicle had the NTT company logo stuck on the sides. The perfect cover, commonplace and inconspicious, and fortunately the killer knew much about fixing telephone lines and Internet modems and did his cover role perfectly. The van was at a parking lot just off Route 75 that rimmed Lake Ashinoko, and there wasn't much traffic to and from Tokyo-3 ever since the Angel attacks intensified.

A triple agent, he'd been here for eight months and still going nicely. NERV and the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs thought he was working for their respective intelligence sections.

Oh, he can kill so easily like a cobra without hesitation; sneak in, take anything he wanted, then leave no trace; tap into a line and sniff data packets; take snapshots of any target. He was formerly of the North Korean intelligence service and with the knack to pass himself off as Japanese, but he dropped out as someone offered him better pay and asked him to infiltrate NERV. More specifically, they initially wanted him to keep an eye on Ryouji Kaji.

So he did, befriending the guy (Kaji's damn cool, really) at work and in the field, and began feeding information and vice-versa to gain much trust from the spy.

However, Kaji knew too much about what was going on behind the scenes, the things that most people don't want to hear about or ignore at their leisure. So when his new employers realized that he was a liability after an apparent abduction incident involving Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, Kaji had to be eliminated before he could blow everything wide-open.

He remembered in detail the last minute Kaji was alive at the AHU (air-conditioning and heating unit) room. Friendly smile on his face, exhaust fan spinning behind his back. Didn't think of the silenced pistol the killer whipped out in a half-second and fired before Kaji could finish his greeting. The smell of freshly-burnt gunpowder, the blood spreading on the floor under Kaji's corpse, and that surprised look of a man bushwhacked.

Now he was waiting for his next assignment, after that last week when he took snapshots of Rei Ayanami leaving her apartment with a telephoto lens screwed to his camera. Girl looked pretty, but with no expression, and judging from her daily habits, she was always on time down to the exact second that he could set his watch to her routine. It also struck him as odd that she still wore a school uniform, even as the local junior high school complex was now nothing but a pile of rubble.

Just as he was on the final bits of rice in his bento, picking each with chopsticks, the phone rang.

"Yeah," the killer said, pressing a button on his earset. "It's me again."

"I have a new job for you," the caller answered in a deep voice, garbled by the scrambler on the other side.

"Go ahead."

"To speed up our timetable, we would like to have a target taken out of the picture, a huge liability for our project. I'll send you some details right now."

Immediately, the caller sent to his notebook an email with two dozen files attached. The killer checked the files, skimming through them, before he came upon several pictures of his intended target.

"Nice, just nice," the killer commented. "You want me to waste a vegetable?"

"This mission is necessary," the caller replied with no humor in his voice. "But you'll only do it later this week. We'll leave you the required tools by tomorrow. Same place and time, and the usual fee, and of course you'll also get an advance. Be on standby should we see any changes in the situation and we'll make the necessary adjustments. We'll give you a green light when the target is ready."

The killer nodded with pleasure. "Hmmmm… No sweat. I can make it look like an accident."

"Thank you. As always, deliver the best results and be careful out there. Good luck." The line was now cut off in the killer's ear.

The killer sighed, now anticipating for his next masterpiece as he rubbed both hands. _Gonna be busy,_ he thought. _Gonna get busy and do it right._

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** Sorry if it has taken me _six years_ to get back into writing, as I had more than my fair share of personal problems to deal with. Six years is _too long_ for a writer's block.

By the way, if you've noticed the altered tone, length and flow of this chapter, it's because I'm making up for so much time lost, using a new writing style and indentation, with better detail and more dialogue, hence the designation of "Season Two" to distinguish itself from the first 8 chapters; it's like you're getting 16:9 high-def OVA-grade reading right now, compared to standard 4:3.

Furthermore I had to do a crash refresher course on Eva lore, while at the same time try to incorporate few features of the recent Eva high-def revamps (with the exception of the new _meganekko_ character). Finally, we're beginning to see a divergence from the original Episode 24 storyline.

This chapter dedicated to my late parents. Thank you all, and I'm determined to finish this.


	10. Red Flag

Back at home, Misato was staring at a line graph generated on her computer, which showed comparisons of different sync ratios of Kaworu and the other Children. Being a bit forgetful, she stuck a Post-It on the side of the monitor that she should report to Fuyutsuki at eight 'o clock in the morning, and maybe try to budge him to release Asuka as soon as possible.

On a spreadsheet, she processed the raw data that Makoto Hyuga copied and sent her the previous afternoon, crunched it through some formulas, until she got this graph: The sync ratio was on the X-axis, the time length at the Y-axis, and each line represented the Children in a distinct color. Their data resulted in very shallow, occasional dips and rises, which was normal. None of the lines exceeded around 60 percent of sync ratio.

However, once again it was only Kaworu's sync ratio data that set him far apart from all the other Children, no matter how Misato even entered other sets of the Children's test data gathered from different times as comparisons: his sync ratio showed it steadying low at 20 percent, then skyrocketing between 70 to 90 percent, before falling back to 5 percent, just as Makoto explained previously.

_It's another red flag_, Misato concluded, imagining that if Ritsuko were to see his data for herself, the blonde scientist would spill her coffee over her lap in shock.

* * *

Shinji was alone and sleepless in his bed, the young man staring at the ceiling while the midnight breeze blew into the bedroom. Despite the earlier reunion with his friends, by now his euphoria was worn off, to be replaced by thoughts of Rei.

As an afterthought, he glanced at his left hand and recalled about the strange thing that happened when he tried to wrestle the Angel off from Unit-01. The creature also destroyed his Pallet Assault Rifle and came up upon him like a jungle python entangling a hunter; the hunter became the hunted.

Shinji imagined the Angel manifested itself on the back of his hand, by a creeping sensation accompanied with some veins growing under the glove of his plug suit. He saw it grow, and it sprouted miniature _heads_ of Rei, like it wanted him to be absorbed.

Yes, it pulsed with life and it really hurt like hellfire as it tried to infest him, even as he jammed the Prog Knife into the Angel's body. He wanted to scream but he could not as he watched the damned thing grow in his hand, his eyes widening in terror before he thought he heard the Angel talking to him:

"_It hurts so well, doesn't it Ikari?"_

He could also recall how the Angel seemed to giggle as he struggled to stop this luminous python from going into him any further until Rei painfully whispered some of her last thoughts through the comlink:

"_Is this my heart... to be one with Ikari...? NO!"_

And he saw everything turn to a blur, as the Angel instantly let go of Shinji and Unit-01 and snaked itself towards Rei and Unit-00. Like a bullet, the Angel slammed straight into that Eva's chest and buried itself into the core. Once it became one with the Eva, the core imploded with a large glob of pink coming out... before it shrank back into Unit-00.

With his eyes widened in shock, Shinji saw Unit-00 slowly rose from its feet, its right hand reaching for the sky. For a split second it shed off its blue and white exoskeleton armor, took the pink shape of a woman's body and then the next thing he witnessed was a massive fireball that ripped up the city in half.

By instinct, Shinji shielded his eyes from the glare of the blast, the shockwave hitting hard on Unit-01, and didn't peer outward until he opened his eyes... and the landscape was changed irrevocably from a skyline of concrete into a giant, steaming hole in the ground, slowly filling up with water. As he stared at the crater, Shinji wondered if Rei could survive an explosion this destructive until she told him later at the Infirmary that she was the Third.

But to him she was the last of her kind, after he saw Ritsuko destroy the other Reis with a remote control in her hand. In her eyes was a combination of rage, disgust and self-loathing. All three of them were in the Dummy Plug Plant, and Ritsuko showed them the dark secret of the First Children.

As they were in the large vat of LCL, the facsimiles of the First Child disintegrated into pieces. In a flash, their heads and limbs were torn away not unlike paper dolls, their bodies dissolving into flecks of flesh, internal organs, and even an eyeball popping from its socket. All of those spilled out and the amber liquid was diluted with the blood of the needlessly condemned.

This slaughterhouse sight was definitely he couldn't take anymore, causing Shinji to instantly drop on his knees and wretch, his bile rising up to his mouth. While he gagged onto the floor, vomiting what was left of his lunch, Shinji heard Ritsuko's lament towards a shaken Misato as she wept, dropping the remote control gadget from her grip.

"_...I'm really stupid... I'm so fucking stupid as my mother! Misato... I was made a goddamned fool and played around with!"_

Now Shinji looked at his left hand once again, before he thought of this insanity made by his father was all about. He sighed.

"I'm not the only one suffering, am I right?" he asked himself, realizing that even the two older women in his life had their own demons to face.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 10: RED FLAG  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547

Written on 2/26/2010 19:08

* * *

On the shores of Lake Ashinoko, surrounded by rubble and collapsed buildings, Kaworu scanned the landscape, his eyes adjusting to the near-darkness. He wanted to make sure that nobody was following him, and in the last half-hour of walking all the way here he glanced over his back several times. The night sky was powdered with stars, and there was little wind at the moment.

It was clear that there was no other soul within a radius of about five kilometers from where he was standing.

With great caution, Kaworu took a deep breath, and the toe of his shoes touched the water. Then he made another step, until he was now levitating above the lake's surface using his AT-Field. Kaworu willed himself to go forward.

He went on floating away from the shore until he found a cluster of shattered ferroconcrete pillars and slabs above the water, remnants of one of Tokyo-3's towering condenser units prior to Unit-00's destruction. He placed the backpack onto one of the slabs.

Kaworu took out his phone from the bag. It was a satellite phone with full encryption, disguised as a regular clamshell cellular phone, and would only hook up to SEELE-controlled communication satellites. The sunglasses that Kaworu now also wore were holographic display glasses that can connect wirelessly with that special phone. Now he turned on both gadgets.

Using his transit data and orbital coordinates, he located the communication satellite he wanted and began tuning the phone to its specific frequency. He could now hear a chime from the gadget, confirming a good satellite uplink.

Through his glasses, the monoliths slowly "emerge" from out of the air, until he could see that they surrounded him completely. All of them with watching eyes, and as he pivoted around, Kaworu could imagine their ancient faces behind those monoliths, each with a glowing red number.

Kaworu now faced the monolith that called itself SEELE 01: Keel Lorenz, the Chairman of the Instrumentality Committee.

"Good evening," Kaworu greeted. "I know that you are expecting me, sir."

"Do you have anything to report since your arrival?" SEELE 01 asked.

Kaworu nodded. "I do."

"Very well," SEELE 01 said. "Before we proceed, let us remind you that you are being watched. Understood?

"Yes, sir, I acknowledge that."

"Let us begin hearing what you have gleaned from NERV."

In formal language worthy of a presentation of an annual business report, the Fifth Children narrated about his first two days at NERV. He mentioned that he underwent a physical examination, had an initial sync test, a combat readiness test on the simulator, before he discussed about the people he met. But as Kaworu promised himself, he intentionally left out the juicier details, telling the SEELE men what they _wanted_ to hear, choosing his words carefully as he went.

Near the end of his report, Keel Lorenz asked Kaworu, "What is your impression regarding the First Children?"

Kaworu shook his head. "She remains as she is, just as reported. No emotions, no past, and she will exist for the Commander's purposes, even if she is no longer the Pilot of Unit Zero."

"What about the Second Children?" Keel questioned, referring to Asuka.

"Because of her psychological trauma, there will be no future for her outside Project E, nor would she ever be able to recover from her ordeal, as the Commander will decide her fate."

"Hmmm… and is there anything about the Fourth Children?"

"They were forced to amputate his damaged limbs and therefore he is medically grounded," Kaworu reported.

"So, he is no longer in the picture, and that leaves the Third Children to remain, is that correct?"

Kaworu nodded.

He could then hear a faint condescending snort from behind Keel's monolith.

"Time and again Commander Ikari pushes and manipulates everyone around him to do his work," Keel lectured, "even cowards and lunatics, as long as he thinks that they are valuable to him to further his aims, until they are no longer useful. I still find it funny that he carries no guilt in the things he do, whether it involves men, women or children, that he is constantly stubborn as a bull against a hundred bullfighters. This behavior is also costing us our time and money."

Kaworu said nothing, and as the whole SEELE council was eyeballing his every move and gesture by their spy satellite's ultra-resolution IR video camera, he kept his feelings in check, his face remaining neutral and indifferent. However, for the Fifth Children this might also be the first time the Chairman has become very blunt, as the elder's stress related to the Human Complementation Project has risen in direct proportion to a dwindling amount of time.

Now Kaworu knew that he has only five days left to finish the job.

"Before you go," Keel said, breaking the silence. "Never once we doubted your abilities, young man. You always raised our confidence and gave us hope."

Kaworu smiled. "Thank you, sir. It is my pleasure."

"Now that we are pleased with your progress, we would like you to continue on with your duty," Keel answered. "We can feel that the day is coming for our benefit, and once you fulfill your destiny, all of us will have our reward."

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, sir… I will not fail you all."

"Well then, we wish you good luck. You can go now, Mister Nagisa."

The monoliths immediately "vanished" from Kaworu's presence, and after a moment the Fifth Children took off his holographic glasses.

He could breathe easy now. It was over.

* * *

The man that Keel Lorenz described as a "stubborn bull" examined his left palm, swathed heavily in bandages, knowing that the power of the creature embedded in it would be harnessed later. He was restless with a brain still running at full tilt, even at this early hour of the morning, a man out to get even at fate for the loss of his wife.

Sitting on the side of his bed and wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, Gendo Ikari was fresh out of surgery and right now he was back in his private quarters, located somewhere in Central Dogma.

However, only a few people were privileged to enter, including Ritsuko Akagi, as his sleeping and living quarters were a very stark contrast to the opulent, expansive office occupying the top floor of the NERV headquarters pyramid: this was a complete, repelling mess, and the air inside was a mixed miasma of cigarette smoke, sweat, and dust.

This clutter was also a product of Gendo's single-minded personality over the years as he pursued his Holy Grail, evidence of his impatience.

Walls with bookshelves were packed with thousands of scientific and mystical tomes (mostly on the Kabbala); around his bed and against some of the walls were stacks of books, publications, folders and envelopes. His clothes were on hangers, with at least two more dangling from the ceiling lamp. His large desk was occupied by two computer monitors and a keyboard, but stuffed with more paper. Finally the wastebasket besides the desk was overflowing with crumpled balls of paper and empty cans of UCC Coffee.

But all of it no longer mattered to Gendo as long as he possessed Adam: he would soon proclaim himself a god over all others, and his time of supremacy would be forthcoming.

With the idea still fresh in his mind, Gendo Ikari went to his desk and began writing down the memo of his proposal to restart the Dummy Plug program. He must seize the day and the opportunity presented by Kaworu Nagisa.

* * *

Deep within the bowels of the Stockade, a baton's loud crash upon the steel door woke up Ritsuko Akagi with a start from her iron cot. She could see that a guard was peeking inside. The growing smell of her body odor also permeated the whole cell, a by-product of her prolonged detention.

"Damn it, I'm still sleeping," she complained loudly, staring angrily at the CCTV camera aimed below at her, as the guard opened the door. "What do you want?"

Wordlessly, the guard handed her a packed plastic bag, which she opened and dumped its contents onto her cot: they included a set of light green prisoner jumpsuits, slippers, spare underwear, a towel, and toiletries – soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant in a single pack. After for so long wearing her now-soiled duty uniform for days, stinking by the hour, without a change since her arrest, at last there was sanitary relief.

_Get used to the new routine, _Ritsuko thought, scolding herself. _Sooner or later that bastard Gendo will have his karma._

"Good morning. As this is our offer for you to be a little more comfortable, you'd better take a shower and wear it, Doctor," the guard said. "We'll also have to hose down your cell as you fix yourself and get some breakfast."

Ritsuko sighed. "Ah, okay," she agreed with self-sarcasm as she stood up and carried the bag. "I look like crap, and I also smell like crap. What's on the menu today, soldier?"

"Beef yakudon with miso soup on the side, if you like, ma'am," the guard replied. "By the way, if you wanted to know, it's five o'clock in the morning."

As Ritsuko, plastic bag in tow, following the guard on their way to the shower room, she worried of the duties that were forcibly taken away from her. _I hope that Natsumi knows what she's doing, and that Maya works on the MAGI properly; I can't afford a hardware breakdown._

_Well,_ Ritsuko added,_ at least finally I get to be squeaky-clean while behind bars._

* * *

By around six o'clock, the Katsuragi residence began to stir to life, as Shinji began the day by turning on the TV for the morning news, swept the floor, cooked some breakfast, before he went to Misato's bedroom. He found her dozing on the desk, head resting upon arms before the computer monitor. There were also two empty cans of UCC coffee and a barely-empty bag of Doritos, as it was clear she worked all night.

He shook her gently on the shoulder to wake up.

"Mmmmm…," Misato groaned, trying to open her eyes. "What's for breakfast?"

Shinji shrugged. "The usual fried eggs and fish," he said, "Good morning to you, anyway."

"Timeisit?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

Shinji glanced at the wall clock. "It's almost seven. Come on and get up," he answered.

Misato stared at the reminder stuck to the monitor, and nodded. "All right, we've got some work to do today," she decided as she stood up and stretched with her arms, yawning wide open.

* * *

As always, Rei Ayanami was in her usual punctual self, and the sentries at Gate 18 knew that they could set their watches to her daily routine of showing the ID card and going through the turnstile. Thus they gave her a secret nickname: Clockwork Ayanami.

While one sentry inspected her ID card, another guard picked up a ringing phone and answered it.

But as she passed through the turnstile and was about to board one of the elevators, one of the guards called out her name as he ran towards her.

"What is it?" Rei inquired.

"Commander Ikari wants your presence immediately," the guard replied.

* * *

Kaworu's breakfast at the cafeteria consisted of rice, miso soup and tea. As he ate, Kaworu wondered if everything was on schedule, but still the unexpected could always happen, even with the best intentions. Last night's first report went well, but he felt that he would probably gain nothing from trying to use the meeting as a way to ask hard questions about Rei and everything else, and even then SEELE would keep silence; they presumably wanted to say anything that can only please their ears.

He remembered yesterday's lunch and overheard Fuyutsuki inviting Misato to report to his office today. Perhaps they may discuss something mundane, but it could be everything critical, especially at this moment as Fuyutsuki was greatly concerned at NERV's situation.

Just as he was about to finish his meal, a man in a three-piece suit, presumably one of the Second Section agents, approached him.

"You're Mister Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Children?" the agent asked.

Kaworu turned to him and answered, "Yes."

"The Commander would like to see you at his office."

_Svengali,_ Kaworu muttered in his thoughts.

* * *

As Misato was driving with Shinji, her cellphone went off with a loud ring. The young man pressed the phone's hands-free mode button, as Misato was on the steering wheel and didn't want to be distracted, while dodging massive Komatsu dump trucks roaring in the middle of the road as they hauled away concrete slabs of Tokyo-3 debris.

"It's the Sub-Commander," Shinji reported, reading off the caller ID on the phone.

"Is that you, sir?" Misato answered.

"This is Fuyutsuki here. I'm afraid there's a change of plans because Commander Ikari wants me up there for an urgent discussion."

Misato grimaced, as she noticed a frantic note in Fuyutsuki's voice. "Just great," she muttered. "What is it all about?"

"I don't know, but I think he's up to something very big, and still I have a very bad feeling about it," Fuyutsuki answered.

Misato could also hear some paper being shuffled around in the background. Fuyutsuki was probably filing or signing away everything on his desk. "Why, sir?" she inquired.

"Asides from me, he also called in Nagisa and Ayanami. However, I can't explain much right now. Now, I must go, Major. You two have to wait at my office instead," Fuyutsuki replied, before the line went dead.

"More red flags," Misato grumbled.

"I don't understand, but why?" Shinji asked.

"Know what this rush means to you? I bet my left lung that your dad has a crazy new idea and is itching to revive a failed project."

* * *

In his massive office, Gendo Ikari faced Kozo Fuyutsuki and the two Children present, as they were his own idea of a highly acceptable audience that he could easily speak his mind to. He also now sported a very confident smirk on his face, signalling that there was a very grand idea on his brain. Fuyutsuki tried to keep his self-control intact; and Rei and Kaworu stood quietly, but they weren't aware that Gendo was now carrying Adam in his left palm, hidden by those white gloves.

"Today I have made a very important decision," Gendo answered matter-of-factly. "This time we have the right opportunity and the factors to make it work once again." He promptly handed Fuyutsuki a folder containing his proposal.

"What do you mean?" Fuyutsuki asked.

Gendo turned to face both Children.

"The First Children must pass a compatibility test in Eva Unit One," Gendo declared. "The Fifth Children in Unit Two will also have his synchro data recorded in his own test, and keep an eye on the First Children. I propose that we rebuild the Dummy Plug."

Inwardly, Kaworu was stunned. _The Dummy Plug?_

Rei suddenly felt a chill in her spine, remembering the dead floating bits of her empty selves in the tank down at the Dummy Plug Plant.

Both Children tried not to look surprised, while Fuyutsuki was clearly thunderstruck, nearly dropping the folder. "You can't be serious," he mumbled loudly, "The whole scheme blew up in our faces, and I think it's not worth salvaging anymore."

Unpleased, Gendo gave him a defiant stare. "When I took this position," he defended, "I understand that in the process of scientific inquiry, and in the interest of our superiors, all possible risks must be dealt with, in order to accomplish our objectives. There is still much potential to be made if we could make use of the limited time we have right now."

Gendo was now hovering so close to Fuyutsuki's face, his nose no more than four inches away from the other, and the older man could even hear the heavy breathing, apparently trying to keep self-composure.

"And how can we prove that it's feasible this time?" Fuyutsuki countered, unfazed by the intimidating icy stare. "Do you have any idea that Unit One is still potentially unpredictable, even we've gone through many incidents involving it?"

"I know all of them, including those cases of rejection," Gendo answered, "but since she's ready again, I have full confidence in having this project revived. You may take it or leave it, but as I have obtained the favorable consensus of others involved, we will proceed as I have planned."

Gendo then pivoted away from Fuyutsuki to confront the Children.

Wordlessly, Fuyutsuki clenched his jaw, using much of his willpower to restrain himself. It would be futile and pointless to persuade Gendo not to take that deadly path again. _The Committee must have pushed him too far that he wants to play this insane gamble,_ he thought angrily. _You're so damned stubborn._

"As with any scientific endeavor, it may be unpleasant," Gendo said to them, "but very important. What we have started, we must finish it. Since both of you will be the very core of this experiment, and I believe that there are no problems with your well-being, I ask you a question: are you ready?"

Kaworu and Rei stared at each other, trying to make up their minds.

_I never realized that he can even make sudden, rash decisions regardless of any circumstances, _Kaworu thought. _But since this Lilim is very persistent, trying to fathom the unknown, thinking he has everything… I will have to see how this leads to. I'm not afraid of any challenge. I think I can handle it, as I have to show him what he wants._

_Very well, then... There's no turning back._

Kaworu now faced Gendo, and the eyes behind the tinted glasses were demanding for his decision, but never too long.

"I'm ready, sir," Kaworu answered.

_I existed because he needed me,_ Rei contemplated. _He wants me to be with Nagisa on purpose and as duty. However I do not know if Unit One is still able to accept me as its pilot._

_I am not very sure._

Kaworu slowly looked at Rei, as if his eyes told her he was greatly concerned.

_As I am doubtful, I have nothing else but need his help._

"Yes, Commander, I will participate," Rei replied with a nod.

Gendo now focused at Fuyutsuki with a triumphant, silent smirk. The old man will have to live with the decision.

* * *

In the hallway, Shinji and Misato were waiting by the door to Fuyutsuki's office, sitting on a bench when the Sub-Commander appeared, walking down to their direction. He was flush with red, breathing heavily, and wore a grave expression on his face. He was also carrying the proposal folder that Gendo gave to him.

"Sir, what's wrong?" Misato asked.

"I can't believe his nerve," Fuyutsuki grumbled as he opened the door. "Come inside, Major."

Fuyutsuki's office was tidy, comfortable and ordered, with window curtains opened wide to offer a magnificent view of the Geofront. Framed certificates and photos were on the walls along with rows of books and publications on shelves, but his most special picture was on his desk.

He offered Misato and Shinji a chair each before his desk, then Fuyutsuki plopped onto his chair. He rummaged through the drawers in his desk and brought out a jar of antacid tablets.

"Heartburn," Fuyutsuki said grimly as he took two antacids and chewed them. "I couldn't believe what he said right there, it was out of the blue. He's pushing his luck too far."

"What's it all about?" Misato inquired. "I'm sure it's bad news, sir."

"You're right. The Commander wants to revive the Dummy Plug, starting today."

"WHAT?" Misato and Shinji screeched in unison, as they nearly jumped out of their seats in shock.

Fuyutsuki took a deep breath and recounted what transpired with his conversation with Gendo.

"I don't understand why he would do such a thing again," Misato said, tabling the folder back on the desk after the explanation. "That damned Dummy Plug nearly killed us all!"

"I tried to talk him out of it but he overruled me," Fuyutsuki replied. "Unless in a disaster, I don't think he's going to listen to reason and he thinks he can do everything what it takes after they've badgered him to go one step further. But all I think is that he wants to take advantage of Ayanami's new 'purity'. Already he convinced Nagisa and Ayanami and promptly assigned them to pilot the Evas at the preliminary testing stage."

Misato knew what the "they" meant: The Instrumentality Committee of Grumpy Old Men.

"After all the trouble we had with the Plug," Misato said, "I'm starting to wonder if everyone else here is beginning to doubt their sanity for being a part of this scheme. This isn't going to fly; this could again have a lot of people getting hurt or even killed."

Shinji now looked down to the floor and shook his head in frustration. Misato placed her hand onto his shoulder to reassure him. She knew that he took most of the brunt of witnessing the brutal results of the Dummy Plug's power.

"Sir, what are we going to do, then?" Misato asked.

Fuyutsuki ran his fingers through his gray hair. Sometimes he did this when he was worried or exasperated. "God help us," he muttered. "We'll have no option except to ride it out and wish for the best. Right now they're preparing the Evas and the pilots, and we'll have to go there and see if his stunt would work."

They all stood up and walked out of the office. As they paced towards the Test Facility, Misato nudged close to the young man.

"Shinji, if anything goes wrong, try to get out of the way," Misato sternly advised the Third Children. He nodded obediently.

"I just wish nothing should go wrong," Shinji commented nervously.

* * *

In the Children's locker room, Rei and Kaworu were in separate dressing cubicles, suiting up for the mission, knowing the difficulty ahead of them. Only Kaworu felt a growing doubt about the task given to them.

"Ayanami," Kaworu said, breaking the near-silence as he finished wearing his blue-purple suit. "Are you sure you can still handle this?"

"Yes," Rei answered as she pressed both wrist buttons to tighten up the fit of her white plug suit. "This is what the Commander wanted, and so this is my duty."

Kaworu shook his head, but noticed the hint of doubt in Rei's voice. "The Sub-Commander wasn't happy at all, because I think he's been there before, and didn't want to try again."

"The Commander could be correct in his proposal," Rei countered, yet Kaworu slowly took hold of her right hand and held it gently.

"Rei, listen to me," Kaworu spoke, using her first name to get more personal. "I know that being useful and dutiful are all-important for you, but honestly, for the first time I'm a bit more concerned about what we're about to do. I'm sure that even Shinji and Misato are just as worried right now for your safety, assuming that the Sub-Commander told them what happened back there."

"But…"

"Since we cannot refuse at the last minute, and the Commander insists on getting his results at any cost, if anything happens to you, I'll be there at your side," he promised.

"I understand," Rei replied.

"Trust me on this; I'm ready for you, so try to be at least strong."

Rei nodded before they heard the voice of the Eva crew chief, waiting at the door.

"Are you Children prepared now?" he asked loudly.

"Yes," Kaworu answered. "Both of us are ready."

* * *

At the Test Facility, the atmosphere in the control room was considerably tense, and almost everyone working inside experienced, one way or another, the uncomfortable prospect of an out-of-control, 80-meter tall Eva. Therefore, as a precaution against the possibility of some obliterated ferroconcrete chunks flying around once hell breaks loose, they were now either wearing construction-yard hard hats or combat helmets.

The stakes went even higher as they got word that the First Children would be inserted into Unit-01. They knew that she and the original Dummy Plug were rejected several times before, often with disastrous results.

As the control room techs and scientists were chatting nervously while working, Makoto, Shigeru and Maya among them, they were less than pleased to have a front-row seat of the action, but only Commander Ikari was fearless, very confident in his foresight. He was in total control at this moment, and to ensure that there will be no dissenters he assigned Section Two agents to guard the entrance to the control room.

He wanted Fuyutsuki away from him, for now.

Gendo could see the technicians swarming about around the scaffolds, rigs and gantries, disconnecting lines, tightening hoses and connectors, packing up and clearing the test floor, as crews at the plug insertion deck were preparing the Entry Plugs and the LCL injectors.

The two Evas now had their pauldrons and arms bolted to heavy restraints, while two huge cranes held aloft massive electrical plugs of the umbilical cords, ready to plug in the power. The emergency systems were also in place, including Bakelite dispensers, fire extinguishers and foam, medics and fire-fighting crews.

All of this activity was music to Gendo's ears; it was the poetry he could not read and the summit he longed to scale.

* * *

As the crew finished readying the Plugs, and actuator arms lowered the Children on the cockpits into the capsules, Kaworu looked back at Rei and into her cerise eyes. The girl nodded back, knowing that he would be there for her, before Kaworu gave her a thumbs-up.

_Rei, you can handle this,_ Kaworu thought. _Just be okay._

"Everything's all right, Children," the crew chief said, glancing up as the rest of the crew cleared the deck. "You're all set to go."

Kaworu nodded. "Thanks, sir," he replied as the massive cover of their Entry Plugs slid down and clamped shut over the Children's heads.

* * *

The control room was now ready for the initiation sequence. Everyone stationed at their own workstations, eyes on every gauge and meter. Banks of monitors showed camera shots of the test floor, the Evas and the Entry Plugs.

"Everything is clear down at the floor," Makoto reported, "and both Evas are fully restrained."

"Ibuki, start up all systems for Unit Two," Gendo commanded.

Maya began to type in commands to begin the sequence, before switches were thrown to insert Kaworu's Entry Plug into Unit-02. The armored carapace shut over the plug and LCL was pumped into her. Then power was allowed into the umbilical cord in increments, as the control room crew watched every figure and graph on their monitors, guarding every small amount being injected into Unit-02. When the nerve branches came next, everyone watched as Kaworu's link points matched up with the Eva before his A-10 connection confirmed a solid hookup.

"The mutual lines are connected, and his synchronization rate is at 65.2%," Maya reported, while trying not to let the nervousness come out of her voice.

On one of the monitors connected to Unit-02's video feed from the inside of the Entry Plug, Kaworu showed a thumbs-up at the camera before him, reassuring everyone that he was okay. He also once again felt the soul inside Unit-02, but because of her weak will was subdued into seclusion as though she was overwhelmed by his presence, enabling him to control the Eva from the Entry Plug. However, from time to time he briefly glanced at Unit-01 standing by his side, wondering what Rei was feeling at the moment.

"Good. Now prepare Unit One," Gendo said.

This time Maya had a bit of hesitation before she carefully entered the commands.

Gendo peered into one of the monitors showing Rei in the Entry Plug. "First Children, are you prepared?" he asked.

Onscreen, Rei nodded quietly as she gripped the butterfly control handles.

"Insert and fill the plug now, Aoba," Gendo ordered.

Shigeru took a deep breath and flipped the switches to allow several pistons to push Rei's Entry Plug into Unit-01, before they all heard the carapace lock the plug into place, and the LCL injector connected into the plug, filling it up with amniotic orange liquid. The sensors told them that the insertion was successful.

"Initial plug depth is now set at 0.105, and plug data has been reprogrammed for Ayanami. LCL internal pressure, temperature, electrolyte and oxygen mixtures are at nominal levels. Main power is ready to be activated," Shigeru reported. He could now see Rei breathing in the LCL.

"Excellent. Prepare to power up Unit One," Gendo commanded.

Makoto pushed a lever to plug the umbilical cord and another to let in several thousand electron volts through the cord up to Unit-01. As he did, he was silently praying that the First Children could survive this one.

The power indicators now lit up in green, confirming optimal levels.

"Input voltage is now green and optimized," Makoto reported.

"Start activation system, second phase," Gendo instructed.

"Synapses inserted. Junction with pilot in progress," Shigeru said.

"Pulses transmitted, all circuits are operational. Initial contacts confirmed." Maya answered.

* * *

Inside the horned Unit-01, Rei Ayanami patiently waited for the preparation sequence to finish when she began to notice something wrong with the LCL. Her nose instinctually quivered.

_Is it… the smell of blood?_

Then alarms began to shrill loudly all over the entire plug. Warning boxes flashed and painted the heads-up display, overwhelming her field of vision. A loud metallic echo reverated throughout, as if the plug was being crumpled in a junk-car compactor.

Her eyes instantly bulged in shock.

_No!_

Suddenly she couldn't breathe!

Rei was now beginning to choke and just as she was struggling in her seat and stars popping in her eyes while clutching her throat, a heavy surge of psychic energy rushed into her mind; images, voices and words crashing in like a tsunami, clamshelling her into the vortex, and her past, present and future seem to collide into a singular mass, culminating in several streams of thought patterns and threads of color, before resolving into an image in her mind:

_Rei was now standing in a pool of LCL, observing two more in her image. Where she was she didn't know._

_The first Rei, __all encrusted with swollen veins, horribly throbbing with life of their own, __spoke. "Who is it? Is it me? I am within Eva? No, I feel that someone else other than me is there. Who are you? An Angel, is it the being that we call an Angel?"_

_The second Rei stared at the first. She looked unblemished, yet somehow there was this sinister quality to her. The Angel.  
_

"_Don't you want to be unified with me?" she asked._

_The first Rei shook her head. _

"_No," the First objected. "I am myself... I am not like you."_

_The second Rei shrugged her shoulders. _

"_Hmm, but you shall see. It is too late for you, but I will give you part of my mind. I shall give you this emotion. Pain, you see, First Children, your mind has pain and suffering."_

_The first Rei frowned. "Is that pain? No, this is something different. It is loneliness. Yes..."_

"_But why it is loneliness? I cannot understand," the second infested Rei countered, almost perplexed._

"_Do you hate being alone? We are many of ourselves, though you despise being alone. That is called loneliness," the first Rei said._

_The second Rei shook her head and closed her eyes. "That is your mind, full of sadness. That is your own mind and thoughts."_

Another memory began to surface. There was a loud crack not unlike a bullet's trajectory or a lightning strike.

_Rei was riding on the escalator along with Shinji, but at the same time they were arguing over his father's conduct towards him._

"_You are the son of the Commander, are you not?" Rei questioned._

_Shinji was frowning. "Yes," he replied._

"_Then why you could not trust your father and his work?"_

"_Of course I can't trust him like that! He drives me nuts!" Shinji shot back, before Rei came close and slapped him in contempt._

Now a memory of Asuka swam into view. They were in the elevator.

"_If you do not open your heart and mind to her, Eva will not move," Rei admonished Asuka._

_But Asuka looked back at her with total contempt. "You mean I'm closing myself off and everything? Is that true?"_

"_Yes," Rei answered without much emotion. "Eva has her own mind and soul."_

_Asuka frowned deeply, completely skeptical of the idea. "That doll? You think it has a conscience?"_

"_You should be aware of that."_

_Suddenly Asuka grinned and leered at Rei, as if her annoyance level has gone through the roof._

"_Ha! Today's so special, you know," Asuka answered loudly, rage and frustration soaked in her voice, "because it's your first time you're talking to me. Heck, we'll have snow falling and later some cherry blossoms on a day like this. Damn, talk about a miracle! Are you so fucking happy that I can't use Unit Two? Don't worry, you little Prozac-hungry twit. When an Angel comes knocking on the door, big Shinji will kill that fucking thing, and we don't have anything to do except to hang around. Goddamn it, they only need Shinji because he thinks he has it all! If he's there, everything's all fine. HA! Now I'm almost out of a career! Not only you've got Shinji, but a doll like you is trying to get along with me!"_

"_I am not a doll," Rei answered, not moving a single inch where she was standing._

_Asuka yelled back. "Shut up, you frigid bitch! You do anything you're ordered to. You'll even waste yourself if Commander Ikari orders you to do so!"_

_Rei never even blinked. "Yes, I will."_

_The reply left Asuka laughing sarcastically, not knowing the truth in Rei's words. _

Finally, she found herself staring at the enraged, burning eyes of Naoko Akagi.

_"You are a hag, aren't you?" Rei questioned Naoko, who was becoming agitated._

_Naoko yelled back at her. "You're pissing me off! That's it! I'll ask the Chief to stop you!"_

_But Rei could not silence herself, mouthing her mantra. "It's the Chief who calls you that. That hag is stubborn, that hag is now useless, that hag is stubborn, that hag is now useless…"_

_Naoko screamed. "STOP IT!"_

_There was no stopping, as Naoko was getting redder in the face. _

_"That hag is stubborn, that hag is now useless. It's the Chief who calls you that," Rei kept on the mantra._

_It was too late. Naoko was already cracked up and off her rocker. "Damn you, you're also useless, fucking USELESS brat because there will be other copies of you even if you're dead! You're JUST LIKE ME!"_

_With complete odium, Naoko strangled the little girl to death, shattering her trachea._

* * *

Bedlam broke loose as the control room frantically tried to stop Unit-01 from tearing away from its restraints, but failed. Already, most of the room's occupants jumped off their seats and scrambled for cover. Klaxons were screaming, and blinkers were flashing red.

Still trying to stay on, Makoto Hyuga repeatedly punched the Bakelite button, but the dispensers weren't working. Apparently Unit-01 damaged one of the Bakelite supply pipes in the wall or the pumps as she went on a smashing frenzy. He also tried to activate the automatic plug ejection system, but to no avail it was hung up on something, another infuriating glitch.

"DAMN IT!" he cursed, before he saw a fistful of Test Type Eva coming his way. He ducked behind the console as the purple knuckles cracked the thick, meshed plates of glass, but chips of concrete pelted the top of his helmeted head. He then turned his attention to the Commander, who was just standing there like a captain behind the wheel in a sinking ship.

Makoto shook his head. "Commander!" he yelled. "We have to go!"

"Unit Two, immediately stop Unit One!" Gendo quickly ordered aloud as he flipped a switch on the console to disengage the restraints locking down Unit-02.

"Yes, I'm coming in, Commander!" Kaworu obeyed, and he and Unit-02 got out of the restraints and tore away a steel-mesh divider. They took hold of Unit-01's arms, but the purple beast broke free, grabbed and hurled the other Eva to the wall. Chunks of concrete flew off from the impact zone as she bounced on the concrete.

Trying to go after Commander Ikari, Eva Unit-01 sent more crashing fists into the control room, pulverizing the wall and some of the windows to smithereens, and then Unit-02 jumped up to grab the pauldrons again to ride on her. The Eva still bucking, Kaworu now attempted to locate the ejection handle and the cord release.

_Where is it?_ Kaworu thought as he fumbled Unit-02's hand along Unit-01's spine, trying to feel for the hidden releases. Of late, these were incorporated as part of an emergency measure in an event should the automatic shutdown and ejection failed, and an accompanying Eva can help its fallen comrade and recover the troubled pilot.

Even as Unit-01 tried to shake them off, Kaworu found the releases and yanked them both outward. The umbilical cord snaked loose as it dropped to the floor, before Unit-01 started to slump forward, losing all power and control. Kaworu caught the Eva as she fell down, and he saw Rei's Entry Plug popped out of the spine. He then pulled the plug away and carefully laid it on the concrete floor. Only afterwards as that plug ejected a great deal of LCL did he allow himself to get off Unit-02.

_Ayanami!_ Kaworu yelled in his thoughts as he shut down the red Eva and pulled a lever just below his seat to eject the plug so that he could use the escape hatch. All power were instantly extinguished and LCL began to drain away as the Entry Plug slipped itself out of the spine, before Kaworu opened the hatch and kicked it away with his feet.

The Fifth Children crawled, slid and jumped down Unit-02's back and limbs before he rushed towards the rescued Entry Plug. He came close but as he was about to grab the hatch, he immediately sensed an awful amount of heat on the metal surface of the plug. Kaworu instinctively pulled his hands away from it.

Quickly seeking for what he wanted, he found a fire hose along the wall of the test pit, grabbed and pulled the nozzle, and opened the valve. Kaworu blasted the heated plug with water, steam hissing from its surface until it was cool enough to touch the escape hatch. He pulled and twisted the release levers and the hatch opened up.

Now he went in and found Rei unconscious. With great effort he grabbed her by the armpits and started to pull her outside. Once clear of the Entry Plug he laid Rei on her back and began to shake the girl's shoulders.

"Rei? Can you hear me?" Kaworu asked.

No reaction whatsoever. She seemed lifeless. _Wake up, Ayanami._

Now he cleared her airway with his fingers, tilt her head backward, and perform quick resuscitation. Kaworu pinched her nose and sealed his lips over hers, giving two breaths.

As he did, he felt the tingle of that psychic rush again and saw in his mind the images from Rei's memories, but at the moment he disregarded them as he was more gravely concerned with saving her life.

Nothing... No response again.

Kaworu now placed his interlocked hands upon her breastbone, and began to press down and release for fifteen times.

Again he gave her his breath and repeatedly compressed her chest until Rei began to spew LCL out of her mouth and nose. The First Children was now coughing and gagging, throwing up the amniotic liquid, and Kaworu found himself staring at her fluttering eyes as she calmed down, taking in new gulps of air. He wiped off the LCL from Rei's cheeks.

Kaworu asked once more as he propped her up to sit, "Rei, are you all right?"

Without much to say as she was again breathing heavily on her own, Rei nodded before she laid her head upon Kaworu's chest. "I told you I'll be right there by your side," he whispered. "Hang on there, help is on the way."

As they waited for the pandemonium to settle down, and his breathing still ragged from exhaustion, Kaworu glanced up to the control room and saw that Gendo Ikari was stoically watching them from there, before he turned his attention to Shinji Ikari, who was looking from the observation room with a shocked face.

For a moment he wondered what came to their minds in the midst of the carnage, what kept them from trying to run away.

_Have they gone through a situation like this before?_ Kaworu speculated._ I don't know._

Now he remembered something from his psychic contact with Shinji. He saw him in his mind's eye, trying to rescue Rei.

_It now makes sense,_ he reflected, and he then noticed the heavy damage concentrated at the control room. _Why Unit One should go after the Commander?_

_Perhaps there is something wrong between him and that Eva._

_Maybe it seems that she wants to kill him, but why?_

Only then the paramedics quickly arrived with a stretcher and they hefted Rei onto it. A neck brace was then placed below her chin and strapped in, while a medic played a beam over her eyes with a flashlight, checking her eyes.

"Can I go along to escort her?" Kaworu asked.

The medic nodded. "Yes, you may come," he agreed.

* * *

All along and though they were apart, father and son witnessed the entire debacle and Kaworu's rescue, and the scene triggered a flashback in their respective memories. There was the same victim, but different incidents and rescuers.

First there was Gendo and his hands were burned in trying to extricate her, and then later Shinji came to the rescue on Mount Futagoyama.

Now it was Kaworu who saved Rei again.

Déjà vu.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** The draft was done in a space of two days, and four cups of the strongest coffee available. For a very long time I imagined this chapter, holding these money shot images in my head, as I struggled on with my life while being off the keyboard. Now that it's been realized, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

This here chapter dedicated to Strike Fiss and Senie.

And thanks to Stephen King for his _On Writing – _I advocate this book as required reading for all aspiring writers.


	11. When the Dust Clears

Eight minutes before Rei was rejected by Unit-01, Misato, Shinji and Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki were on their way to the Test Facility.

"Sir, there's something I found out ever since Nagisa came," Misato said in a low voice, trying not to let Shinji, who was trailing behind, eavesdrop on them. "I was supposed to discuss this with you today."

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Come again?"

"I discovered a great deal of discrepancies on his sync data, that is, he could do anything with it much easier compared to the other Children."

The old man sighed. "I'm very much aware of it," he whispered, "He has everything, the ideal Eva pilot, but he's also Committee property. That means we shouldn't simply jump on him on mere suspicion. On the other hand, however, I seriously doubt if Ayanami could return to piloting this time. It's been several days since Unit Zero destroyed herself."

"I finally understood what she is, sir," Misato said. "Shinji and I went down with Ritsuko to see it for ourselves... why she is the Third."

Fuyutsuki turned to her and inquired, "At the Dummy Plug Plant?"

Misato nodded, and she told him the short version of what transpired down there.

"Then Shinji now knows the truth," Fuyutsuki spoke, "Everything about her manufactured nature, and why there are many copies of her. Is he very much aware of where Ayanami actually came from?"

"I'm afraid we got only half the story," Misato remarked. "Afterwards, I once overheard him wondering why she and… his mother are almost alike."

Fuyutsuki pursed his lips, apparently trying to make up his mind if he could go on and say the secret he kept for many years. He could imagine her short brown hair, that carefree expression, the soft lips, the gentle demeanor, the intelligence in her eyes…

Then he spilled the beans in almost a whisper.

"Major, I tell you this: Ayanami is a product of my frustration over the years… for not being able to–"

At the threshold of the observation room, this time suddenly the klaxons blared around them, cutting off the conversation, and the PA called everyone to evacuate the premises as Unit-01 broke free of her restraints. The entire Central Dogma shook violently from the pounding of her fists.

Shocked by the alarm, Shinji rushed to the window and saw unfolding pandemonium before his very eyes. He merely opened his mouth in shock.

* * *

Several levels below and in her Stockade cell, Ritsuko felt a strong tremor as it roused her from her nap on the iron cot. A surprised expression crossed her face, wondering.

_What's going on? Was it a chemical explosion?_ She thought.

_No, this is too strong for such an explosion. Is it an earthquake? But… _

Then she remembered a situation like this. She covered her gaping mouth in disbelief.

_Oh, my God, I think Ikari's trying to do something really stupid with the Evas!_

* * *

All three of them watched in terror and disbelief as Unit-01 smashed the walls with her mailed fists, while her legs tried to kick free of the lower restraints. A fist hit a wall and chunks of concrete fell out to the floor; and another flew towards the direction of the control room, almost blowing out one of the thickly-layered, mesh-reinforced windows.

While Fuyutsuki instinctively covered her with his arm, beckoning her to stay behind, Misato turned her attention to Shinji and ordered, "Stay down! Just don't try to intefere or you'll get hurt!"

But Shinji didn't move an inch as he observed the chaos unfolding before him.

His mind was now recalling a scene like this before.

Back then, he was with Unit-00, on a compatibility test when something entered his mind, trying to invade him as it was threatening to crack open his skull.

_He found himself screaming._

"_Ah, what the heck is this?! Something's trying to get into my head! What the hell is it? Ayanami? Rei Ayanami? It's Rei, this consciousness is hers! No, don't do this to me!"_

_As he struggled to get this something off his brain, trying to find the ejection handle, warning boxes popped out of the heads-up display and watched the people in the control room panic, attempting to stop Unit-00 from wreaking havoc. _

_Before they could shut the whole Eva down, she was trying to punch her way through to strike Rei, who stoically stood there at the control room, watching._

Now it was a terrifying repeat of yesterday, one that he couldn't ignore at all, even as Misato grabbed his wrist and pulled him away, yelling.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 11: WHEN THE DUST CLEARS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 3/5/2010 2:08

_

* * *

-Shekinah-_

Four minutes later, and lying on her back on a growing puddle of LCL, Rei Ayanami was trying to open her eyes after she heaved the amber liquid out of her system. She could feel her heart beating rapidly as it was attempting to get oxygen circulated back into her system, but there was the remaining rushing edge of adrenaline in her veins.

Kaworu Nagisa was looking down at her, staring with concerned eyes. He managed to revive her through CPR. Klaxons were still sounding the alarm at almost a deafening volume.

"Rei, are you all right?" he asked as he pulled her body up to prop against his chest.

The First Children nodded almost weakly, breathing in fresh air. But as she did there was a slight pain in her head, as if something had been pushed into her mind.

It felt strange.

There was a new awareness that she never felt before minutes ago, or even days, until it dawned upon her that perhaps somehow the missing pieces in her were finally put in their rightful place. Thus she felt that a circumstance like this happened previously, and she could now see it in her mind.

She heard Kaworu whisper into her ear.

"I told you I'll be right there by your side," he said. "Hang on there, help is on the way."

Then she faded into unconsciousness as the shock from the trauma overtook her.

_

* * *

-Svengali-_

As he watched Kaworu rescue Rei, Gendo Ikari was fully aware that he imagined himself down there, so many months ago before Shinji came.

He was there.

He could vividly remember the moment, the smell of spilled LCL everywhere as he ran across the test floor. Unit-00 was restrained by a solidifying mass of Bakelite on its body, but the Entry Plug was on the floor a few meters away, partly draped by its emergency parachute. He could also remember calling her name out, and then touched the escape hatch.

_The heated metal seared into his palms, and the burning pain was instantaneous, but he struggled to release the lever and twist it around to open the hatch._

_Still clenching his teeth from reacting to the burns on his palms, he crawled inside, trying to reach her and said the words._

"_Rei, are you all right? Rei!"_

_Gendo could see Rei give him an "I'm okay" nod._

_But as he pulled her out, his glasses slipped off his face and fell. The lenses fractured from the hard impact as the glasses bounced until it rested on the floor._

Now, back to this reality and in the midst of the anarchy, there was a strange feeling in his heart.

There was little for Commander Gendo Ikari to say as he remained there at the control room, transfixed with this recurrence, watching the paramedics assist them both and lifted Rei onto a waiting stretcher.

_

* * *

-The Hedgehog-_

Shinji could remember another scene as Kaworu pulled Rei out of the Entry Plug. It was almost the same situation but in a different place, on a moonlit night on the slopes of Mount Futagoyama.

_As he ran toward the Entry Plug, he saw afar in the middle of Tokyo-3 the smoking carcass of the Angel resting on its side, after he killed it with the Prototype Positron Sniper Rifle. No thanks to the high-energy beam attack of the Angel, Unit-00's SSTO shield was now a molten piece of metal, and that Eva's armor was almost burned off._

_The Entry Plug was on the ground, and Shinji struggled to open the hatch. He found Rei sitting there on the cockpit, almost exhausted._

_The sight of her made him cry, as he called her out._

"_Ayanami, are you all right? Ayanami!"_

_Rei was speechless._

"_D… Don't say to me 'I have nothing else'," Shinji pleaded. "Don't say 'goodbye' to me when we go on a mission. Hearing you say those goodbye things is too hard for me."_

_The Third Children wiped the tears off his cheeks with his arm._

"_Why are you crying?" Rei asked as she watched him weep. "I am sorry. I do not know what to feel at times like this."_

_Shinji managed to swallow. "That's okay, I'm too terribly worried about you," he answered. "Come on, I'll get you out of here."_

"Are you okay, Shinji?" Misato asked. The young man blinked, now snapped out of his reverie.

"Y… Yes?"

Misato was now staring at him, and Fuyutsuki was just behind her, standing. Both of them were visibly shaken.

"What has gotten into your head? I told you to take cover!" she reprimanded him loudly.

"It… it was like this, just like… this before," Shinji answered, stammering.

Misato shook her head. "Come on, we have to get out of here," she said, grabbing his wrist as they quickly walked out of the observation room.

* * *

The whole control room looked as if a bomb went off outside its armored shell. Dust can also be seen floating in the air, and there were flecks of cement on the floor. Chairs laid askew, papers strewn about, and the thick-layered windows were streaked with great cracks. Outside, the two Evas were silent, sitting squat on the floor as technicians went all over them to check for damage.

Covered with a little dust on his uniform, unconcerned by the total disorder yet brooding, Gendo Ikari was still standing there in the middle of the control room, when the damage control crew began to file in with their rescue and medical equipment. One of them approached him.

"Uh, Commander, are you okay, sir?" a corporal asked nervously as everyone else went about trying to assess and clear out the damage.

Gendo turned to him, glaring, and said, "I'm all right. But let me think, and just leave me alone for a moment. When I'm done, I'll give orders and then I shall leave."

Once the man walked away, Gendo muttered to himself almost quietly, "This is too much of a mistake. She rejected her again… I should have restrained myself in the first place."

* * *

The three of them were waiting in the corridor when the Commander went out of the control room, but never gave a glance at their presence as the escort of Second Section agents ringed him instantly. With anger simmering within, Shinji wanted to shout, ask him what really pushed his father to put Rei in harm's way, except Misato restrained firmly with her hands on his shoulders, telling him inwardly to stand down. She whispered into his ears, "Don't."

But in the case of Fuyutsuki, all he could do was to wear a scowl on his face. He was also sure after this fiasco Gendo would ask for a small conversation in the quiet secrecy of his office, for he didn't just served as his co-conspirator in this maddening enterprise, but also as a confidant for all of his secrets and aspirations.

Once the Commander and his escorts disappeared into the crowd of emergency personnel filling up the corridor, Fuyutsuki shook his head in commiseration. _It's all because you're trying to reach Yui_, he reflected.

"Looks like I'll have a lot on my hands," Misato said, breaking the silence. "Start an investigation, debrief everyone, gather info, and write down reports." The older woman shrugged. "I think this is the last time she'll ever be riding an Eva."

"Unit One knows everything," Fuyutsuki concurred, and Shinji nodded, understanding from experience that even in silence, that purple Eva was always listening, feeling... and watching.

_

* * *

-The Messenger-_

Still wearing his Plug Suit, Kaworu Nagisa was standing by the door to the emergency room where Natsumi Odani and the ER team went about checking Rei. He was also contemplating about what happened back there, especially with the psychic rush.

_Before, I didn't find anything from her,_ he reflected. _Her mind is almost a blank slate and as much as I tried, I couldn't bring her memories back._

Kaworu sighed. _But today, all the sudden she has all these memories, and what else, I think I have come to see that her mind has great depth and she has secrets to tell. There's much for me to do, however, to sort all this out until I have a coherent picture._

He grimaced slightly, as an unlikely idea hit him. He pictured the fierce, unblinking scowl of Unit-01.

_Has this Eva anything to do with Rei's condition right now? Is it possible that it… no, she can alter the minds of anyone inside in different ways, apart from psychological contamination?_

_Maybe the Lilim who made the Evas know only a mere fraction of understanding of all their functions and their potential, as they are very complex creatures._

_Like my brethren before me._

_It's obvious that Lilim are still too young to understand, especially with their science._

_No, _Kaworu shook his head, disagreeing with that conclusion. _Even I am also trying to understand the extent of my own capability. Literally, I'm feeling my way around._

After talking to one of the nurses, Natsumi walked up and came out of the doorway. Standing before him, she gave Kaworu a mild smile.

"Don't worry too much, Mister Nagisa," Natsumi said. "She's out of danger. Besides that Unit One rejected her completely, she also suffered from was oxygen deprivation and eventual asphyxation due to high levels of carbon dioxide in the LCL, so I suspect a malfunction somewhere in the Entry Plug subsystems."

"I see, ma'am," Kaworu said. "Can there be any other problems?"

"For now, I'm due to have her go through an MRI and a brain scan to check for brain damage and maybe some psychological contamination, but given the very short amount of time she was out of air, I believe that the possibility of such trauma could be small. I hope she could survive that, too."

Kaworu nodded. "Thank you very much, Doctor. I'll wait for her."

"Good. Oh, by the way," Natsumi spoke, "…Thanks for saving the day. If it weren't for you, things could've gotten out of control."

"My pleasure," Kaworu answered, as the young doctor then went back in to begin treating Rei. A nurse placed an oxygen mask over the girl's mouth, and another nurse hooked up an IV line and a bottle of dextrose.

Kaworu looked on and sank into self-reflection. He never thought that even for someone like him so used to perfection and in a cloistered life, he was left shaken by today's incident. It would no longer be possible for him to be indifferent to the sufferings of others around him; he'll have to respond.

What is the point of living if one can't reciprocate kindly with the other?

If that was the case, then Lilim could be baser beings than animals, as most animals are rarely solitary creatures and depend on each other's existence. This is what referred to as symbiosis to create a working ecosystem. As Kaworu needed to win their trust, he must first show his compassion to them as a means of symbiosis.

Now his rescue of Rei Ayanami was the initial clear act of mercy.

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **

Later in a few more chapters I might try to introduce a theory that could explain some of the inexplicable parts of the story, such as the one in Chapter 10.

This chapter is dedicated to the following Filipino voice actors (but sadly, most of them have now retired and moved on to other things) who worked on the original series on ABS-CBN Channel 2 (December 6, 1999):

**Lucky Mark Santos** _(Ret)_ - Shinji Ikari / **Amy Aguirre** _(Ret)_ - Rei Ayanami / **Minna Bernales** _(Ret)_ - Asuka Langley Souryu / **Stella Canete** _(Ret)_ - Misato Katsuragi / **Amy Panopio** _(Ret)_ - Ritsuko Akagi / **Arnold Abad** _(Ret)_ - Kaworu Nagisa / Ryoji Kaji / **Erie Resurreccion** _(Ret)_ - Toji Suzuhara / **Alexx Agcaoili** - Makoto Hyuga / **Maripette Narvasa** _(Ret)_ - Maya Ibuki / **Rico Gutierrez** _(Ret)_ - Shigeru Aoba / **Phil Cruz** - Gendo Ikari


	12. Rei in Jonah's Whale

"_So lonely am I  
My body is a floating weed  
Severed at the roots.  
Were there water to entice me,  
I would follow it, I think."  
_- Komachi (834 - 880), Japanese poet.  
_Kokinshu_

* * *

At the Children's locker room, Kaworu Nagisa was in the shower, letting the warm water splash on his head and to ease the ache from the day's near-catastrophe in the Eva testing facility. With hands pushed against the wall, head bowed downward, he was also thinking and recalling those images and voices in his mind.

In fact, he was seeing things and experiences from Rei's point of view.

He could see a completely bandaged right arm and an eye patch as Rei looked at herself in the mirror (_Is this her home?_ Kaworu told himself, noticing that her room was dimly-lit and somewhat grimy). She then turned to the left and walked towards the cabinet containing her clothes, and on top was a bunch of thick books and an eyeglass case.

Rei opened the case and took out the glasses, which were cracked and had a slightly-worn look. She held them in her palm and then caressed the gold-rimmed frame as if she was trying to remember the time they were given to her (_Whose glasses are those? They look familiar… Only someone use such eyeglasses. Do they belong to the Commander?_).

Teardrops fell from Rei's cheeks, spattering the lenses.

Kaworu suddenly shut off the shower with a twist, and sat onto the tiled floor. He was now blinking, trying to go deeper to seek more of her thoughts.

Another image from Rei's life: sitting on a bench, under the afternoon sun, she was reading what appeared to be an impenetrable treatise on molecular biology, all written in German. The First Children wasn't fazed by the text, as if she was comfortably reading a paperback novel, when a shadow blotted out the pages.

Rei turned to confront the blatant intruder of her personal space. It was a girl in a uniform just like hers, alert blue eyes and long red hair with color-matched interface headsets. Behind that girl was a growing crowd of Tokyo-3 Junior High School students, watching the newcomer with great interest as if it the tableau was a soap opera being played out.

_It's Pilot Soryu,_ Kaworu told himself.

_"Hello!" Asuka greeted, perky and cheerful. "You must be Rei Ayanami, the pilot of the Unit Zero Prototype. I'm Asuka! Asuka Langley Souryu. I'm the pilot of Eva Unit Two. Let's be good friends!"_

_"Why?" Rei questioned as if her reading pleasure was gravely disrupted. The red eyes narrowed._

_Asuka grinned. "Because it'd be so convenient for both of us," she replied, "as we're in the same business."_

_There was a tense moment of silence as Rei pondered for an appropriate response._

_"If I am ordered to, I will," she answered blankly, and returned to pick up where she was interrupted. She could also hear Asuka make a loud remark: "Talk about strange. Why?"_

_"That is all I can say," Rei answered without leaving her eyes from the book._

Kaworu shook his head and stood up, pulling a towel from the rack. As he dried himself, the next thing he will have to do is to keep an eye on Rei, presently unconscious in Room 300 at the Infirmary.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 12: REI IN JONAH'S WHALE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 3/10/2010 3:34 a3/p3

* * *

In her unconscious state, Rei imagined she was naked, in a deep ocean, sinking slowly into abyssal depths, the only bluish-white light somehow emanating from her body, illuminating a cliff face. She couldn't move her limbs, but her eyes seeing only that rocky blue cliff and the darkness beyond her.

_Where am I going down to?_ Rei pondered. _Why am I here for?_

Bubble streamed from her mouth, but there was no sensation of drowning, as the water felt more like it was LCL enriched with oxygen. There was nothing except for her existence, until she heard a strange, deep cry from the bluish darkness.

It wasn't human at all.

Nor an Angel or something, as a hulking shadow or three slowly stood out. They were long and huge, with their flukes slowly pushing them forward. She could now recognize their shapes.

_Whales. I have read or heard about them somewhere... Maybe in school?  
Why I am thinking of whales?  
Is this my imagination?_

They were engaged in a very complex conversation in deep, basso calls, almost loud enough to be heard thousands of kilometers away. As Rei's illumination shone light on the whales, they were a family of humpbacks, the largest of their kind.

One of those whales seemed to be staring at her with interest, but Rei wasn't sure how she could approach these creatures. Maybe she could reach out to their skin with a hand, so suddenly she was able to do it and touch the whale closest to her.

The huge creature responded with a soothing, long and low voice, the sound echoing against the cliff wall and scattering to other directions.

With growing curiosity, Rei kicked her legs to go near, and she was close enough to try caressing its skin. She couldn't tell what was in the whale's mind as she petted it, but the creature didn't seem to mind, contented with her presence.

The smaller of the whales swam beneath her, as if it wanted to interact.

Then a thought crept into Rei, and she could imagine Shinji's face swimming into view, speaking to her.

_"Why are you doing this?" Shinji asked._

The scene changed into where she was wearing a Plug Suit, sitting on a tall scaffold standing besides Unit-00. She could see the moon above the horizon in its full shining glory; to her left, Shinji was a few meters away, also sitting on his own platform besides Unit-01. He was looking at her right in the eyes.

_"Because it is my bond," Rei answered.  
Shinji frowned in wonderment. "A bond?"  
"Yes, it is a bond. But..."  
"This is a bond to my father?"  
"It is to all other people."  
Shinji smiled, apparently in admiration for what he percieved as erudition.  
"I... You're strong, Ayanami."  
Rei shook her head slowly. "I have nothing else."  
Shinji blinked. "You have nothing else? But why?"  
The blue-haired girl glanced at the watch on her wrist, the digits displaying 11:59 PM. "It is time," Rei announced. "We must go now, but I have to say goodbye."_

The scene dissolved into darkness, replacing with only her with the humpbacks swimming close for contact.

_Goodbye,_ Rei thought. _For I can be replaced when I die?_

For a moment she could see Kaworu's face, gazing downward at her, his face displaying concern but reassuring. His red eyes told her of his sympathy.

_I do not know now, but as I have seen his face it means that I am alive, that it also seems I could even remember almost everything. I existed because...  
Not because for the Commander needs me, but because of Nagisa.  
No, I cannot return yet.  
I do not understand, except this time I need Nagisa.  
Because I feel blind; I have forgotten. Lost memories, helpless, useless, worthless; I am supposed to die and be replaced..._

_No, _Rei disagreed. _There is something in Nagisa that has kept me alive…  
His kindness, that openness, the understanding._

Commander Ikari's face appeared, seemingly unsympathetic to all others except before her presence.

_Are those actions also present in the Commander?  
I do not know._

Rei imagined Commander Ikari standing before Shinji, cowering on the floor in total fear as the older man glared with complete indifference to the boy's mumbling not to run away.

_I do not even know what kind of person the Commander truly is, although Ikari is too afraid of him._

But this scene dimmed away as another was suddenly illuminated, of Kaworu standing before her, smiling softly with arms wide open. He spoke:

_"If anything happens to you, I'll be there at your side."_

The Kaworu Nagisa in her mind nodded.

"_Trust me on this; I'm ready for you… so try to be at least strong."_

Then everything dimmed around Rei, the dream world fading into nothing.

* * *

At the Data Analysis Room in Central Dogma, they were all reviewing the data acquired during the failed mutual compatibility test. Makoto Hyuga was in control of the room's largest analysis workstation, which resembled a soup-up version of a professional video-editing suite; it consisted of a very powerful computer with massive hard drives and multiple display monitors. Behind him was Misato, Shinji, Natsumi Odani and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, all of them were looking at the monitors displaying the data in separate sections.

Every Eva test is recorded into a fully-digitized log file which included the following information: video, audio and data (locomotor, vital signs, sync rate, LCL condition, bioelectrical activity, etc.) streams obtained from remote sensors and cameras present in the Entry Plug, the pilot's Plug Suit, the Eva (or any of the simulation bodies) and the control room; the video streams even have their own timestamps and the camera location.

However, at the moment, Shinji had little to say except he was trying to catch onto what the others were talking about; some of the technobabble was beyond his comprehension, let alone for the fact that Unit-01 finally went south on Rei.

"Okay," Misato said. "Let's see what we have in there."

Fuyutsuki and Natsumi nodded, as Makoto pressed the Play button on the control console.

For the first minute everything appeared to be normal. Rei was waiting patiently as the LCL filled up her Entry Plug, and the data showed everything in a typical startup routine: a slow rise in figures as the lines climbed.

Then at the critical point of attempting to clear the Borderline, on the video streams Unit-01 tore off the arm restraints while Rei was suddenly caught in a seizure, mouth wide open as if she wanted to scream, her hands apparently trying to hold her neck as though she was being strangled. At the same point the EEG and ECG graphs showed a sharp increase in brain and heart activity, almost beyond tolerance; LCL oxygen levels dropped sharply with a corresponding increase in LCL internal pressure.

"Pause it right there, Lieutenant," Natsumi Odani ordered Makoto. "It looks likes psychological contamination, but this one's different. We've never seen anything like this before."

Misato frowned. "How can you be sure that this is a different case?"

"It appears that there's very high activity in the hippocampus, which concerns about long-term memory," Natsumi said, pointing out the displayed EEG graph.

Natsumi let her hand hold her chin, thinking. "We'll need more data to be sure if this is the case, especially the previous compatibility test logs, but to make it simple I think Unit One may have forced whatever information into Ayanami's brain."

Misato turned to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, who was silently watching most of the time. "Sir, what do you think?" she asked.

"Play it again," Fuyutsuki commanded, and Makoto rewound and played the digital log file once more. This time he was focusing on the cameras overlooking the control room and the test chamber. While Unit-01 was blasting the windows with her fists, each punch appeared to be directed at Commander Ikari.

"I'm not sure what caused this to happen, but looks like the Eva's angry at him," he remarked. "Why he didn't move an inch?"

Makoto shrugged. "I don't know, sir," he answered. "We rushed out just as hell broke loose, except the Commander stayed on to watch. I told him to get out but he didn't. I suppose that he's remembering what happened months ago, when Unit Zero went berserk on us."

"I see," Fuyutsuki said before he turned to Natsumi. "Just as you said that this is an unusual case of contamination, you know diagnostic tests will be appropriate."

"I did," Natsumi confirmed. "I put her through an MRI scan immediately after ER treatment."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Good. While you're at it, as I'm sure you also have the necessary clearances, try to see if there are any previous cases involving the First Children's brain activity."

"Yes, sir," Natsumi agreed.

As the others went on talking, Misato approached Shinji and told him, "While we're trying to unscrew this mess, maybe you should try visiting Ayanami downstairs," she suggested. "I think this is the right time to make up for all the trouble between you and her," she added, referring to his soul-tearing dilemma after the Dummy Plug Plant incident.

Shinji nodded. "O... Okay, I'll do," he responded. "I don't think I'll have something worthwhile to do here."

Once the Third Children left them alone, Fuyutsuki focused on Misato. "Should we ever get stumped on this one," he said. "I have someone in mind who can easily give us some answers."

* * *

This time Rei found herself sitting on a folding chair, a bluish-white spotlight trained down on her. In what place she didn't know.

_Why am I here? Where am I? _She inquired, slowly turning her head to see if there was anyone else besides her, before it dawned upon Rei that she was alone.

And she heard herself speaking from somewhere.

"_My heart, so much as to become distraught."  
"My heart desiring bonds with people."  
"Before I even knew it, I was… trembling… struggling… bleeding… gasping… and to realize in this final moment."_

**-FLASH!-**

The scene was changed again, but this time Rei was in an Entry Plug, in another place and time, and another reason being there. She could hear herself reciting what amounted to a monologue while images flashed before her.

_Mountain. Heavy are the mountains,  
Something that changes through ages.  
Sky. Blue sky. Something visible, something invisible.  
Sun. Something unique.  
Water. Something agreeable. Commander Ikari.  
Flowers. Many of them alike, many of them useless.  
Sky. Red, red sky. Red color. Red color that I hate.  
Water flow. Blood. The smell of blood. A woman that does not bleed.  
Made from the red soil are humans.  
Made by man and woman are humans.  
Town. Something that humans made.  
Eva. Something that humans made.  
Humans are what? Something that God made.  
Humans are things which humans made.  
The things I possess are my life and mind.  
The vessel of a mind. Entry Plug, the throne of a soul._

Rei saw herself before a mirror, red eyes staring, inquiring as she tried to unlock her own personal enigma.

_Who is this? This is me.  
Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? What am I?  
I am myself. This object is me, the figure which forms me.  
This is the me that is visible, though it feels as if this is not me.  
A strange feeling.  
My body seems as if it is melting.  
I cannot see myself. My figure is fading away.  
I am aware of someone else.  
Who is there before me?_

Images of persons that interacted with Rei rushed before her, starting with Shinji.

_Ikari.  
I know this person. Major Katsuragi.  
Doctor Akagi.  
People, my classmates.  
The pilot of Unit Two.  
Commander Ikari.  
Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?_

**-FLASH!-**

Once again Rei was back in the Entry Plug, but the throbbing veins were all over her body, tightening as the Angel tried to fuse into her. But this point of view flickered as if it was being slown down. Still fighting to be alive, she glanced to her right, catching a glimpse of Shinji and Unit-01 struggling to stop the Angel from fusing with the Eva.

Rei's heart ached with the intense longing.

_Is that my heart?_

Lonely tears were flowing away from her eyes.

_Do I need to unify myself with Ikari?_

She could also hear the overriding electronic hum amidst the beeping alarms, comlink yells, the thunder of battle, and blinking warning signs. The displays flickered as weakening power surged throughout the Eva.

_No._

The comlink window appeared, but it wasn't Shinji who was onscreen.

Kaworu Nagisa, in Unit-02, was silently trying to save her, mouthing her full name as he fought to stop Unit-01 from hurting Rei, even as her sight began to wax and wane.

The scene changed, from the forest where she made her last stand, to the concrete confines of the Test Facility, the wide field of vision and lateral G-forces gyrating from side to side. Rei was becoming nauseous, the extreme violent movements trying to kill her inside.

And then darkness fell upon her, ending the overwhelming shock and roll.

* * *

Rei slowly began to open her eyes, to find herself staring at Kaworu. Then she turned her head slowly to find out she was in one of the Infirmary rooms. She was on the bed, on a slightly upright position, and she felt a needle stuck to her arm, leading to a hanging IV dextrose bottle. Kaworu, now wearing his school uniform, was sitting right next to her. He was going to be her babysitter for the day.

"Hello," Kaworu greeted. "How are you feeling?"

Rei didn't know what to say, trying to find the right words.

"I feel weak…" she mumbled.

"You have been rejected by Unit One," Kaworu said, "and you were also unconscious for about two hours."

"I also have this strange feeling inside."

"What is it?" he inquired, slightly puzzled.

Rei moved her right hand to the chest, just over her heart.

"I… I… I feel I could remember," she answered, feeling every heartbeat on her palm. Tears were starting to well from her eyes, as she let her mind begin to flashback almost every image of her memories:

_Testing Unit Zero, and Gendo's rescue;  
The Commander's shattered glasses;  
Shinji's arrival and the subsequent battle against the Third Angel;  
The little "accident" they had at her apartment, when he delivered her new ID card;  
On the moonlit night of Operation Yashima, where they defeated another Angel;  
Her uneventful school life, and the loneliness;  
Asuka's arrival, and the times when they exchanged words, some of it harsh words from the Second Child, and their rivalry;  
Subsequent missions together against the Angels;  
The evening meal at the streetside restaurant, and then she remembered the flavor and aroma of the pork-free garlic noodle soup;  
Shinji's disappearance into the Sea of Dirac;  
The destruction of Unit Three and the following assault on the Geofront by an Angel;  
The reawakening of Unit One;  
Shinji nearly consumed in the Entry Plug, and recovery;  
The fall of the Second Children;  
And finally, the Sixteenth Angel and the destruction of Unit Zero;_

_"If I let loose... there is no way my AT-Field would ever contain it... The Field will disintegrate... I... I must hold on..."_

"Ayanami, what's wrong?" Kaworu asked almost quietly as he moved closer. "Are you all right?"

"I am the Third," Rei answered, tears cascading her pale cheeks. "I can remember now. Almost everything. What I have thought I have forgotten or lost, the emptiness has been filled in."

Rei sat upright and faced Kaworu, eye to eye.

"I have now realized the reason for my tears," she declared.

The numerous faces of Shinji, in different moods and different times, rushed before her eyes.

Kaworu looked baffled. "I don't understand," he whispered.

Rei shook her head in disagreement, and then she looked deeply into Kaworu's eyes.

"In many ways… you remind me of Ikari," she replied.

* * *

Thousands of kilometers away, Keel Lorenz was fuming, as his cup of tea was untouched for nearly ten minutes. On his desk was a brief report about today's Unit-01 fiasco, the covert source saying that the First Children failed to achieve compatibility.

"This isn't what I expect from him," Keel muttered. "He suddenly makes a rash decision costing millions, and in the process he fails."

The SEELE chairman typed in a few commands on the keyboard to bring up Commander Gendo Ikari's very extensive file on the main display. It showed his full picture, some important information and a biography. Keel opened some older sub-documents, which included Gendo's criminal record (and since then purged after pulling some powerful strings in the Japanese political hierarchy): assault and battery; public disturbance; resisting arrest; disorderly conduct. Hell, he was even responsible for starting at least ten barroom brawls, breaking jaws and heads while studying at Kyoto.

Keel shook his head. _He's always a rebel from the start. I once used to admire his style, sacrificing moral complexities to accomplish an objective._

There were more files, this time dating back to Ikari's teenage days. School records (in Gendo's old surname) told of multiple reprimands from principals, another score of transfers after cases of bullying and fistfights. These were a sharp contrast to the exceptionally high scores on the report cards, his hard intellect that saved him from almost being expelled.

The old man sighed. "When you combine cold intelligence," he told himself, "with a dangerous fighting personality of a wild animal, trouble always follows."

Keel stood up from his seat, quickly emptied his cup and mentally wrote down a reminder to summon Commander Ikari later in the evening. He would have to demand some very hard inquiries as to why Gendo was trying to implicate the Evas in a very hazardous, unauthorized experiment.

"Depending on how well you will answer my questions," he muttered, "If you are wrong at the end, it may be the last time I dole out my forgiveness for all of your transgressions."

* * *

As Shinji was heading towards the the Infirmary, many thoughts were swirling in his head, mostly memories of Rei. He also remembered the last time she was here.

_I saved her once, _he thought,_ but she saved me on that day, yet she forgot what happened to herself. After all the trouble she got today, I don't know what to say this time._

Shinji frowned a bit, as he turned to the left corridor. He remembered that shabby-looking room that looked almost like Rei's home, the hospital bed surrounded by medical equipment and cabinets.

_Or perhaps she doesn't know what to say either. I don't know. I'm not really sure because she's a clone; she's someone else… that's what makes me feel hard about her. She called herself the Third._

Shinji stopped walking, as understanding dawned upon him. He bowed down his head, doubting. His mind's eyes blinked from his mother's face to Rei's and back, but trying not to recall the gory mess in the tanks.

_On second thought, she is Ayanami, even if she's not sure about herself. Why do I have to worry so much about whether she came from that Dummy Plug Plant place or why she's part of Father's scheme? Or why do I have to be afraid of her? Why? _

He saw in his mind's eye of Rei wringing a cleaning rag, water dripping down to the bucket, and then more memories of being together with her.

_I can't… I have to face Ayanami. I'm responsible for her, for what she once used to be, for even trying to do everything for her._

Shinji glanced up, deciding that he can't simply run away from this. Clone or not, he still owed her for everything; he affected her life and vice-versa.

* * *

Rei felt a headache, head bowing down, and her palms against the forehead. She mumbled, "Nagisa… can I rest because I am not feeling right?"

Still seated besides her, Kaworu nodded and said, "Sure, you really need to. You do look nauseous."

The First Children sighed and closed her eyes as she lay down. _I could not handle all of what my mind has right now… It is very heavy for me. But I needed to know what went wrong._

"Yes," Rei whispered. "Tell me what happened to me."

Kaworu took a breath and began describing the whole story of what happened down there, including the rejection sequence and the chaos that followed.

"Unit One does not want me," Rei said, her eyes still closed. "Do you think I am… worthless?"

Kaworu shook his head. "N… No," he disagreed, "you still have a lot to live for, I believe. You've managed to survive a great deal, though. 'Worthless' sounds too harsh, but I think this would be the last time you'll be riding an Evangelion.

"I tell you… Sometimes we have to look beyond all that; we have to look life outside of this environment, as we can't simply depend on one thing or desire. We have to add more dimensions to our lives. Then we could see some new possibilities, and also see our true worth. We cannot escape this world, but we can think of many ways to make this world more bearable to live. That's why humanity continues to exist as they socialize and interact, for better or for worse, as this world continues spinning on its axis."

There was a moment of silence between the Children, as Rei pondered Kaworu's words.

"Can I ask you something instead?" he asked, breaking the reverie.

"Yes."

"Do you still have a heart for Shinji?"

Rei took a bit of hesitation to think about it, and then recalled from memory some of the times she and Shinji were together; his smiles, tears, words of gratitude, and even his worst fears. Kaworu was here, willing to listen to all of what she wanted to say, probably the first time since the end of Unit-00 she was able to speak with some confidence.

"He talks of everything about what he feels," she said. "More especially whenever he talked about his purpose of being here, and about his father. He is not sure of himself or about the Commander, for he is afraid; he feels he wants to run away. Perhaps I am the only one who could listen to him, because he could not open himself to everyone else.

"Ikari affected me ever since we first met. Whenever I am hurt, I am alone, or when he is also hurt or alone, he comes to me. He formed me into the person he wanted to see in me, as I became close to him. He even wanted to see me smile because I am not always an emotional person and I am not able to react properly.

"But when Unit Zero was destroyed, he became afraid of me. I do not know but it has something to do about me losing my memories on that day. That time I am even unsure of myself, I cry for reasons I could not know until now."

Rei opened her eyes and focused at Kaworu. She was again crying.

"Ikari is the reason for my tears, for my heart longed for his presence," she admitted. "My heart wanted him because I am lonely."

For a quiet moment Kaworu watched Rei weep, knowing that she has finally told the cause for her sorrow.

"But today… you're no longer alone," Kaworu answered almost quietly, breaking the silence. "To be honest, you're full of pain and longing, as your eyes said back at the pool. You asked for help, and I fulfilled that promise. That's why I'm here now."

Kaworu paused to get a box of tissues at the bedside table and gave it to Rei, who then daubed her cheeks and eyes with a handful of tissues.

The Fifth Children smiled softly. "Looks like it's your lucky day," he mused.

Rei set aside the tissue box. "Why?" she asked.

"I've never heard you talk much until today."

"Yes," Rei answered. "It is you that makes me want to speak, just as you have told me to open my heart."

"You have to… You needed a release, and as it seems that you are now able to remember, you have it. It's called catharsis."

"C… Catharsis?" Rei repeated the word.

Kaworu nodded. "That's right."

Rei felt relieved. More than anything, as if all the weight on her shoulders was lifted away. She then remembered what Shinji once told her when she couldn't know what to feel: _"I think… you should smile."_

"Nagisa… there is one thing I would like to say again," Rei said.

"What is it?"

Rei made a soft smile, also the first time since the destruction of Unit-00, now able to convey her emotions visibly. Her eyes found peace, yet there was a slight trace of blush on the cheeks. _I want to live_, she told herself,_ and I want to continue these relations._

"I… I thank you," she answered, "For saving me."

* * *

At a smaller workstation in the Data Analysis Room, Natsumi Odani was on the keyboard, having entered her ID card to securely access classified data. Fuyutsuki and Misato were watching behind her seat, listening to every word.

"Okay," Natsumi said as she entered query keywords for the search engine. "I'm getting some of the Functional MRI/PET scans on the First Children, then and now."

She pressed Enter, and then the workstation computer quickly found several of Rei's F-MRI/PET files, all cross-sectional scans. Natsumi loaded the first and the older among this group, displaying it onscreen.

"Here's the first one," she began. "This dates back after the attack on the Geofront, the one she tried to kill the Angel with an N2 but failed, and as per standard procedure for injured pilots after ER Doctor Akagi ran a brain scan on her. Now, if you can see it here, despite sustaining battle wounds, Ayanami's brain functionality remained normal. The amount of brain activity is indicated by the size and color of the overlays."

Fuyutsuki and Misato peered closely. On this image of Rei's brain, a scanned axial cross-section slice, colored overlay areas indicated signal changes in brain activity; red and yellow represented increased changes; blue and green showed reduced changes.

"Then this is her brain after Unit Zero was destroyed," Natsumi remarked, loading a second image. On this image, the color overlay blobs located at the hippocampus were smaller, meaning little or no activity.

"Does that mean that if these blobs here on this hippocampus are small," Fuyutsuki noted, "there's a problem with her memory? Am I correct?"

"Here, sir," Natsumi said, "it means that she has some trouble remembering, classified as retrograde amnesia. She may be able to remember some events or persons, but due to trauma she could not recall more recent events."

Misato nodded. "Ayanami wasn't able to remember about saving Shinji," she mentioned. _As if her mind was a slate wiped clean._

"Ah, that's one example," Natsumi answered, before she selected a third image file and loaded it. "This is today's scan I did on her couple of hours ago," she remarked, pointing out the new changes shown on the image. The color blobs on the hippocampus area were large and orange-red, indicating greater amount of brain activity.

To Misato, all she could do was to scratch her head, but Fuyutsuki looked astonished.

"Sir," Natsumi said, tapping the blob onscreen. "As this image tries to prove, what Unit One did to Ayanami's hippocampus area today, is that this Eva has forcefully inserted a truckload of information we don't have any idea about. Right now, lying on bed, she could be carrying, whatever it is, anything and everything in her head."

* * *

Kaworu watched as the resident nurse went through the motions of checking Rei, taking a pulse with a stethoscope, measuring body temperature, fiddling with the flow valve on the IV line, and gave her a packet of painkiller tablets, which the First Children swallowed along with a glass of water while the nurse jotted her findings on a clipboard.

"Well," the nurse said to Kaworu, her nameplate on the white uniform identifying her as Chigusa, "all in all, she's okay but according to Doctor Odani, Miss Ayanami could be released tomorrow morning after she finishes some diagnostic tests this evening."

Kaworu nodded. "Thank you," he answered as the nurse left the room. Once they were alone, he sat down onto a chair and said, "Hmmm… Do you need anything, just to pass the time? Maybe you want to read a book or two? There's a little library around here."

"I do not know," Rei replied. "What book do you have in mind?"

"Perhaps you could appreciate the writings of Natsume Souseki?" he suggested.

Rei simply nodded in approval.

"Okay," Kaworu said, rising from his chair, "just wait here and…" He saw the door open and at the doorway Shinji was standing, looking at Rei.

Kaworu smiled. "Oh, it's you."

"I… I'm sorry," Shinji said, walking into the room. "It took me so long to come here because I was with Misato."

"Ikari…" Rei whispered.

"Ah… Ayanami… are you okay?" he asked, almost stammering because of his inner double-take. He began to take notice of her red eyes, which looked different from the last time; they were no longer blank and expressionless just like after Unit-00's demise. Gone also was the cold look on her face, replaced with new serenity. _Is that really you? _Shinji wondered.

Rei, on the other hand, was trying to guess whether Shinji would be able to accept what she was today, and whether he would recognize once more her old self. Everything she knew about him and between them came through her mind as though she was leafing page after page of a photo album.

With great and sudden clarity, Rei saw the first time they met in dangerous circumstances, she in his arms as the klaxons blared around them and above their heads, Eva Unit-01 managed to shield them together from falling debris with her arm. Rei was still in bandages, painfully trying to keep herself alive despite being asked to do the impossible, while Shinji mumbled not to run away.

"Yes," Rei answered. "There is, however, regret that I was not able to answer your one concern previously."

"What is it?"

"I am sorry for my forgetfulness," she said softly. "I confess that I have saved you from the Angel."

Shinji was left agape for a second or two. Kaworu knew it better to let them talk freely.

"You mean… You can remember _now_?" he asked, puzzled.

Rei nodded. "Yes."

"I… I don't know what else to say," Shinji said, trying to find the right words.

"Ikari, what matters most for me is you are now here," Rei said, bowing her head slightly. "Forgive me for causing you much distress."

Shinji felt as if the world has gone off its axis, wondering what really happened to Rei and prompted her to talk like this. But he needed proof, so he asked her one question.

"Ayanami," Shinji said, "Do you remember the day I delivered your new ID card?"

There was a short pause between the two Children, the gears in Rei's mind spinning quickly to bring back the moment as if it happened yesterday.

"Yes," she answered, now able to find the right words to describe that scene. "I was finished taking a bath when I found you waiting. You were holding a pair of glasses that once belonged to your father, and as a remembrance I kept it on the cabinet. I thought you were a thief, trying to steal them as you were wearing it. I tried to seize the glasses back from your hands, but we slipped to the floor. Unfortunately, I was only wearing a towel, and I have neglected to lock the door, therefore I did not notice you entering my room while I was bathing."

Then silence at this tableau. Rei was waiting for Shinji to react, but already it was happening. Kaworu now noticed that Shinji was clearly beet-red in the face, but even he was also overcome: straight-out, Rei admitted a very intimate part of her life, without blinking an eye, without guilt or malice, without embellishing or cutting out the details.

This was Rei's proof of life.

"Shinji," Kaworu spoke, trying to snap him out of his daze. "I think Ayanami's right, because it's on your face… She's telling the truth."

The Third Children slowly walked up to Rei, eyes locked to hers, still looked astonished, and then with both arms hugged her. Only then Shinji began to sob, as it was clear that the Rei Ayanami he liked best was now returned to him.


	13. Confessions

At the Data Analysis Room, the ringing phone interrupted one of the researchers working on a routine report. He picked up the reciever and suddenly froze, realizing the voice belonged to Commander Ikari, telling him a request and then the phone went dead. He glanced around and saw Fuyutsuki, in conversation with Natsumi Odani and Misato Katsuragi over Ayanami's condition. Meanwhile, Makoto Hyuga was busy talking on another phone, probably discussion related to the compatibility test fiasco.

The researcher stood up from his seat and walked towards the Sub-Commander.

"Sir," the researcher said. "It's very important."

"Yes?" Fuyutsuki replied.

"The Commander wishes to talk to you in personally at his office."

"I'll be there," Fuyutsuki said and turned his attention to both women. "May I excuse myself?"

Natsumi and Misato nodded. "We'll take it from here, sir," Misato answered.

As Fuyutsuki left the room, Misato remarked, "Looks like Commander Ikari's trying to pick up the pieces."

"I'm afraid he has no choice except it's his responsibility," Natsumi replied frankly. "We're just doing what he says, good or bad."

"And that's a problem," Misato said, "which makes you wonder where we're heading soon."

Natsumi shook her head, as they watched Makoto put down the phone on its cradle and turned to Misato. "One of the chiefs down at the Test Facility said the crew crew did an inspection on that Entry Plug and the Bakelite system," he reported. "The Bakelite valves were found to have their power connectors removed a few minutes apparently after a routine inspection."

"No doubt it's sabotage to me," Misato said. "What about her Entry Plug?"

"It's fine. They found nothing except for exterior damage."

Misato sighed. "I see," she agreed, before facing Natsumi. "Can we leave for a while? Just for some fresh air?" she suggested, signalling that Misato needed to talk to Makoto outside, in private. Makoto nodded in agreement.

"It's okay," Natsumi replied, sitting down onto her workstation and began typing in her access codes. "I'll have a lot of work to do right now, then later check on the girls downstairs."

* * *

Standing outside the room, as he watched Shinji and Rei talk intimately, Kaworu focused on one memory fragment from Rei that intrigued him:

In his mind's eye, there was a dark chamber, probably underground, and making up as the wall of this chamber was a massive, circular tank made of Plexiglas; and in the middle of this chamber was a Plexiglas cylinder with a tangle of wires and what looked like a massive spinal column connected to the top.

This was now different, as it was too close to the truth. He was seeing through Rei's eyes, as she was right inside the central tank, floating in the amber LCL. But then, as he focused closely at the circular tank, thinking they were specks of impurities and silt, turned out to be the remains of the destroyed Rei clones, innards and all.

Kaworu was taken aback, mouth agape. This was one of Rei's terrible secrets, confirming his description of Commander Ikari as a cunning manipulator. Many questions now began to pepper his thoughts.

_This is Ayanami? Who or what killed these copies of her, and why and for what purpose?_

He now remembered a place like this, for the purposes of his master, because like Rei Ayanami, he was born to serve a specific purpose.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 13: CONFESSIONS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 3/18/2010 12:40am

_

* * *

Kaworu opened his eyes, and he found himself in a Plexiglas tank full of LCL, wires snaking behind his back while bubbles rose from the bottom. He also felt that there were some electrodes stuck onto his head._

_Kaworu heard voices, and he slowly turned his head to find where the voices came from._

_Dazed and floating in the hazy orange light, he saw two men talking to each other. One was a bespectacled man in a lab coat, while the other was an older, obese man with a visor covering his eyes. Kaworu focused on their conversation and listened._

_"So, I am glad that you have finally done the impossible," the older man spoke._

_The lab coat man with tufts of gray hair adjusted his thick eyeglasses. "Yes, Herr Lorenz," he answered. "I'm very thankful for your help after all these years... and I'm pleased to be honored."_

_Keel smiled. "Ah... Doctor Steingarten, we should be seeing the fruits of your efforts soon," he replied._

_"Yes, of course sir," Steingarten plesantly agreed. "Duplicating the procedures established by Fuyutsuki, Ikari and Akagi were indeed difficult, with so much trial and error. But now that we have pefected him after many years, I should daresay that we can go on to the next step."_

_"The Dummy Plug System," Keel said, supplying the answer. "It is one of several elements we need in performing the ritual for the ascension."_

_"What do you mean of ascension, sir?" Steingarten asked, before he realized what it also meant. "Heaven... Yes, that's what we're expecting anytime."_

_Lorenz nodded, as if the word Heaven made him smile inside._

_"Uh..." Steingarten mumbled. "Sir, if you could allow me to speak."_

_"Yes," Keel agreed. "You may suggest."_

_"I wonder if the final steps would be flawless," the wiry scientist remarked._

_"It should be," Keel answered. "And as your superior, I expect it to be perfect. More perfect that what NERV does. Their own Dummy Plug System has flaws, incapable of synching with any of their Evas. Their pilots are imperfect, even with the First Children whom Ikari put his best hopes on, as well as the Second Children whom we found to be a suicidal wreck just like her mother."_

_Steingarten nodded._

_"And indeed in many ways we have the upper hand in dealing with the fundamental problems they have," Keel continued. "As for Ikari himself, his willful defiance is an irritation. Any further signs of that, we will start dealing with him by putting this boy into Ikari's little organization."_

_"And then...?"_

_"I expect him to seek out the weaknesses in the Third Children and exploit them. I also want him to place NERV into complete disarray that we can see if their defenses can be neutralized and use it to our advantage."_

_Steingarten blinked slightly. "Sir, what about... what if there is a possibility of this boy failing his mission?"_

_Keel grumbled, as he closed his fingers to form a fist. "If that happens, if he sacrifices himself," he answered, "We will use more effective measures to ensure our ascension."_

_"How that will be accomplished?"_

_"If he dies as expected in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls," Keel answered, "Then we shall initiate Operation Endgame."_

_Steingarten suddenly carried a slightly nervous look on his face. Apparently he knew anything about Operation Endgame._

_"Doctor, is there any problem with that?"_

_"No," Steingarten disagreed, slightly unnerved._

_"If you ever have any objections," Keel said, "There are many ways at our disposal to ensure your unemployment, some of them unpleasant. You also know that many will replace you on short notice, just like your Japanese counterpart, the late Naoko Akagi."_

_Steingarten kept himself still, daring not to make another move._

_Keel turned around and gazed at the multitude of unconscious Kaworu Nagisas surrounding him, all of them willing to be sent forth. He faced Steingarten again._

_"Doctor," Keel mentioned. "You will not mention about our conversation and assume that this has never happened between us. Do anything, but make it perfect," he emphasized, pointing out the first Plexiglas cylinder marked "101-17"._

_As the old Chairman turned to face Kaworu's container, the young man kept still, pretending not to listen._

_Steingarten nodded. "Yes sir," he agreed. "As you wish, we shall accomplish this for the Complementation of Man."_

Kaworu shook his head. _In many ways, you're just like me, Ayanami, _he sadly reflected.

* * *

At the same time Kaworu was waiting and thinking outside at the hallway, Shinji was apologizing to Rei for some of his misgivings. He felt downcast as he did, but he knew that at one point before, Rei was his confessor when they were alone.

"Forgive me for what I told myself about you," Shinji said.

"Why?" Rei wondered.

The young man shook his head. "For I saw the truth about you," he answered. "There were many of you. Copies just like you."

Rei was now trying to find the right words to explain, but she couldn't utter a word.

"Doctor Akagi said that they used you for the Dummy Plug," Shinji added, a bitter tinge in his speech, trying not to remember the gory aftermath. "But she was angry and destroyed your copies because she thinks you're responsible for her suffering. However, I don't think it's your fault."

Rei remembered that back at the Dummy Plug Plant after she came back from the Infirmary, as she was floating in the central tank she saw bits and pieces of herself.

"I was born for a purpose," Rei answered. "The Commander wanted to see to that, and he told me that I have a duty to fulfill his wishes. He also said that I was important for his goal, and thus I have copies of myself for the Dummy Plug."

Shinji frowned. "What goal?" he asked.

Rei looked away. "He never told me about it. Only I have to do what he wanted, even if it means I have to risk myself because I have replacements then."

The young man closed his eyes as if trying to relieve himself of the pain. Here was someone who was made, if not born, for a specific purpose for what end that he didn't know, and yet he was afraid of asking. Here was also someone who could not speak her own mind, or have the right to object or oppose, but simply to follow someone else's dictates.

Until now.

"It's all because of my father," Shinji said, as he remembered that mind-wracking experience while he was in a disintegrated form in the Entry Plug as Unit One nearly absorbed him; he was bombarded with endless questions about his purpose, existence, desires, fears, pain and pleasure. He wanted escape, but there was no place to run away from, and thus he had no other choice except to accept the expectations of others or the twists of fate.

Shinji lowered his head. "I wish all of this didn't happen," he thought aloud. "Not just for me or you, but everyone else around us. I wished a different life; I wanted to be someone else; I wanted to be normal."

He turned his attention to Rei, who was silent. "Neither of us have choices," he said. "I should've said this but I can complain, I can yell or throw things, but my father doesn't listen. Nothing could try to change him, nothing."

In Shinji's mind was his father's intimidating stare, stone-faced and those eyes behind glasses, expressing a single-minded determination. Under his withering gaze there could be no dissent, no opinion, and no freedom. Everyone will have to do as he ordered because he thinks what he does as a Commander is important.

"Exactly what does my father really want?" Shinji asked.

"I could not answer that at all," Rei replied.

Shinji silently clenched his teeth, upset at the fact that if he ever summoned an enormous amount of courage to ask his father why, he would only meet a frustrating blank wall and that patent murmur. It was also obvious that despite she spent more time with his father, Rei didn't know much about the Commander's true personality.

Then there was the job description. He remembered about the little NERV brief that Misato gave him to read not so long ago, which also described the roles of the Commander and other subordinates under his command.

"Was it that he was made a Commander because he wanted me to save the world?" Shinji thought aloud, "Or that because somewhere he sees Mother in his work?" He sighed and shook his head.

"Ayanami," Shinji said with a different conviction, "Until we get to know what he's truly up to, we'll never understand what we're actually here for, because it's killing me, unless you could at least try to get an answer for me because I know that you're much closer to him than I do."

"'Killing' you?" Rei queried, as sometimes metaphor and idioms defeated her.

"I mean, it's still driving me nuts," he clarified. "There are also still a lot of questions out here, even if Misato is still trying to find more answers. I bet that it's easier to solve a sudoku puzzle than this one."

Shinji sighed in despair. Other than solving mathematical solutions in school (and often with errors; he was not very good in math), his head never ached like this before, trying to crack the enigma that was his father. He decided to talk about something else, something he never broached to Rei before.

"I remember something when I was absorbed in the Entry Plug," Shinji said.

"What is it?"

Shinji made a wistful smile. "I saw Mother inside," he answered, "and I heard her talk to Father. Weird, I could also smell her. I think she said that if I wanted to live, anywhere can be heaven, and perhaps if I make it through, I have a chance at happiness. But right now this isn't happiness… except maybe with friends. They're happiness; they keep me from going crazy, and if I get hurt they also become worried for me, just like what Kensuke, Touji and Hikari said yesterday."

"Are my memories my happiness?" Rei asked.

"It can be," Shinji replied, "if they were good memories. Haven't you experienced being truly happy when we're all together? Like back when we went out eating with Asuka and Misato? Or when Misato got promoted? Or when I saved you once?"

To Rei the idea of smiling or laughing was still alien to her, as she was bred to be completely indifferent to the world outside, and since her enrollment at school then she was always alone and unsociable. All it was drilled into her mind was total obedience, but from the time she met Shinji he changed her gradually.

Perhaps that was what happiness was all about, a change within, a chance to try at least lighten up. Or is it in the company of others that one can be happy?

Yes, just like what Shinji said, interaction with people kept him from being sad.

"Is it when I am not lonely, when I am with others that I can be happy?" Rei queried, as it seems that in the process of talking to Shinji, she was beginning to entertain possibilities for herself.

"That's right," Shinji answered. "Kensuke said it all how important it can be to have someone to talk to, whether I feel bad or good. Just like what we're doing today."

Then he remembered something else from the Entry Plug experience: he heard his mother talk to his father again, deciding what name he wanted for the firstborn; if his mother gave birth to a boy, he would be Shinji; or if it's a girl, she would be named Rei.

A shiver went up to his spine. If what he heard in the Entry Plug was correct, then this girl present before him is possibly his _twin sister_.

Rei noticed the odd expression on Shinji's face. "What is wrong with you?" she inquired.

Shinji shook his head. "No, nothing," he answered sheepishly. Deep inside, though, he felt better being with her this time, hoping that nothing should ever take that cherished moment like this away from him.

* * *

While Shinji and Rei were still deep into their conversation, Kaworu took his time to approach Asuka's room and looked through the windows. The Second Children remained completely drugged, wired, and almost motionless on her bed. The broken expression was also marked on her face, as she had surrendered all of her personal will to chemicals.

Asuka laid there, begging to be helped in some way to get away from her misery even in that seemingly lifeless state. Perhaps tonight he would take advantage of his service to Rei by sneaking into Asuka's room. It was a risky move, but his urge to intervene was greater.

He thought of his secret gift, trying to know its potential and its limits. True, SEELE trained him to make the most of his powers, such as generating and manipulating his AT-Field into any form he wished, or levitate with his will, but even now he was still learning. There was much that he never knew about himself, waiting to be unearthed.

Kaworu closed his eyes. _I wish I could know you better, but it's time for me to look into you. You can't live like this._

* * *

"You were right," Gendo Ikari said sourly to Kozo Fuyutsuki. "I should have thought more carefully before doing this."

Both men were in his office, alone and behind closed doors. Sitting on his chair and arms on the desk in the standard pose, Gendo also wore a scowl on his face, clearly bothered by the failure of his attempted experiment.

"Why do you have to restart the Dummy Plug program?" Fuyutsuki asked. "It could've raised a lot of Committee eyebrows." Floating on the older man's mind was George Santayana's oft-quoted warning on the failure of understanding history, the terrible consequence of repeating a historical mistake. "I'm pretty sure they would know about it," he added.

"I thought today would be the perfect opportunity," he answered. "Apart from trying to get a good chance on a compatibility test, I was also hoping to record the Fifth Children's data, synthesize with the First Children's pattern and then incorporate into the revised Plug."

Fuyutsuki looked afar at the bucolic scenery out in the Geofront. "But I think it's too late, and as I have said previously, the Dummy Plugs we have built carried too many defects."

"That's enough," Gendo answered tersely. "From now on, no more of that nonsense, we're wasting too much time and money on those useless things."

The Dummy Plug project was now offficially dead. For a while both men pondered before Fuyutsuki broke the silence, asking, "Care to ask why you remained standing as Unit One tried to kill you, even as there was clear and present danger to your life?"

"I remember recovering Rei from the Entry Plug," Gendo answered after a long pause. "You know that I got my hands burned while opening the escape hatch, and I broke my old glasses."

"I know that," Fuyutsuki said.

"Personal sentimentality, something I seem to miss in these days, or that I have forgotten completely."

"Thinking of her again?" Fuyutsuki asked, referring to Yui.

"She's the only one who said to me that she actually liked me," Gendo said. "I wished I known her much better."

Fuyutsuki then turned to confront Gendo. "Then perhaps you were too trusting. Back then, you were so absorbed in your work."

Gendo said nothing, but Fuyutsuki recalled that Ikari spent a week of alcoholic debauchery after Yui's failed contact experiment, and afterwards came out with the Instrumentality Project and proposed it to SEELE.

"If I could remember correctly," Fuyutsuki continued, "Your wife risked herself just to do something she thinks is noble, so she made herself a test subject for that contact experiment. I can also remember that day now, and I can even remember her words. She is the reason why we're here today."

Gendo shook his head. "It's her choice, because she wanted to follow the path of the Scrolls; everything can fall into place as forecasted, but anyone can participate as part of their destiny."

"Speaking of prophecies," Fuyutsuki said. "Do you really believe that everything can happen in accordance to the Scrolls?"

"Even with setbacks, everything goes according to plan," Gendo answered. "That's why I put my faith in it."

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "You may not like this, but it has come to my mind right now that _not_ everything can happen as planned."

Gendo frowned. "What do you mean? Most of what the Scrolls predict and later correctly confirm every incident we encountered."

"Some variables could affect everything and create unpredictability," Fuyutsuki explained, "including things beyond our control or knowledge, and even things we did not conceive of as part of our planning. But just as a fluttering butterfly in Tokyo-2 could possibly cause a storm in Miami, there will be always these variables because everything we do and what occurs in our complicated world, are always interconnected with each other."

Gendo cut him short with a signature murmur, which Fuyutsuki took as an agreement.

"The Entanglement Theory, is it correct?" Gendo asked, recalling an ancient but unconventional theory that was discussed in _Nature_. Once part of teachings of Eastern religions, it was now being studied seriously in subatomic physics. "Now that it makes sense to us," he went on, "if we apply this theory into our current situation, I'm pretty sure that even the Committee, for all of its influence and money, can have its own set of problems, just as we do. They can be also be affected by variables outside their responsibility."

Gendo was now thinking, as he caressed his beard.

"So that means that we'll have to closely look for variables that either we or they could take advantage of," Gendo continued. "Now that you made me think again, that brings us to one variable that may soon be a bone of contention, especially now that we have little time left. Either this could turn the tables on the Committee, or against us."

Gendo's glasses glinted for a second in the light, as if his confidence was restored by a quick stroke of genius.

"And what is this variable?" Fuyutsuki asked, slightly perplexed.

"Kaworu Nagisa."

* * *

Shinji recalled his previous dispute with Rei on the escalator, in which as a rebuke she struck him on the face.

"Do you remember when you slapped me?" Shinji queried.

Rei looked at him, trying to remember the circumstances, and then she answered, "I was being defensive then because I thought you were insulting him by telling me that you could not trust his work."

Shinji shook his head. "Do you still trust him? Me? No, I still don't," he added, "Especially for what he did to you today."

Rei said nothing, as she was trying to sort herself out. She remembered Kaworu's promise before they boarded the Evas, vowing to be at his side should anything go wrong; and before that, Kaworu vowed to help her deal with that amnesia, and the Commander's lesson on the value of trust:

"_Trust is, I believe, is a very precious commodity that we must be aware of and must be given carefully."_

Rei bowed her head low and spoke, "Today I am beginning to doubt the Commander."

Shinji looked puzzled, completely struck by her decision, as he always knew she was loyal to his father. "Why?"

"I am now unsure of your father's wisdom," she admitted. "I could no longer rely on his work, and I also fear the future, of what may come soon to me."

"But…"

Rei looked into Shinji's eyes. "Because of it and I want to live, I have now put my trust on Nagisa… and you."

* * *

Outside the main NERV building, Misato was talking with Makoto Hyuga over some of the more sensitive concerns, especially the probable sabotage of the Bakelite system and the secrets the glasses-wearing lieutenant brought out for her. He explained what happened when he tried to use Bakelite on Unit-01 but the dispensers were fouled.

"This reminds me of what happened to that Jet Alone junk heap," Misato recalled. "Somehow there's somebody on the inside who's trying to screw things up."

Jet Alone was a robot built by a local industrial consortium in a bid to supplant Evas in the role of fighting off Angels, but this mechanical monster went out of control during its field demonstration months ago, forcing Misato and Shinji to completely shut down its nuclear engine before it could blow up.

"They're not ruling that out," Makoto answered, "So as the chief down there said, he's conducting an investigation by questioning the crew. Maybe then Section Two would latch in there with an inquiry, but, no surprises, I'll expect nothing just like when they tried looking for Miss Langley."

"That's what I'm afraid about those guys," Misato remarked, shaking her head. "Okay, what else… Ah, yes, Unit One," she added, wishing to change the subject.

"I'm not surprised with its odd actions, either," Makoto replied. "We also know that Unit One had a history of being unpredictable, such as eating and using the S2 Engine from an Angel, absorbing Shinji in the Entry Plug, rejecting Ayanami and the original Dummy Plug, and so on."

Misato recalled talking with Ritsuko on the physiology of Angels, as they were recovering the remains of one that Shinji took down several months ago. Ritsuko admitted that for all of her efforts, learning all about the Angels' functions and powers were beyond their comprehension, and so far they were scratching the surface. Like the Angels, the Evas were also very complicated to begin with, and even today the resident NERV scientists understood only a fraction of their potential. Only when the Evas unleash the impossible, they reveal a little more of their terrible secret.

Then an idea entered her mind; it was unthinkable but plausible. Maybe it could explain why Rei now suddenly had a different state of mind.

"Do you remember about that Angel that fused with Unit Zero? And then it also tried to join with Unit One?"

"Well, yeah," Makoto answered. "The Angel even did enter Ayanami's brain, just as her psychogram data tells."

"And then at the mission debrief Shinji said his hands were sprouting small heads of Ayanami, or so he claimed, while trying to stop it. He even mentioned about the Angel talking in his head. At any rate, however, I was never told exactly what happened to Unit Zero or that girl, as Ritsuko kept totally mum about it. But now, I'm not discounting the possibility that the Angel may have served as a psychic conduit between the Evas while it was trying to fuse with them."

Makoto frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about not just a physical or a psychological attack, but something else that could be the answer as to what happened to Ayanami today."

"Do you want us to look into that?" Makoto asked. "I wonder if we still have much time."

"I don't care. We'll need to review the post-combat data, and every second of it. Check every variable, run the numbers, and then we'll have our answers because the Sub-Commander said the Evas know everything."

She remembered the strange pictures and the secrets that Makoto gave to her a few days ago. "Anyway," Misato said, "in the last two nights I looked into the data you gave to me."

Makoto adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses. "How did it go? Have you found something?"

"You're right on the mark," Misato replied. "Besides the odd pictures, there were many discrepancies with Nagisa's data. I've also talked to the Vice-Commander about this anomaly, and he said that he was just as suspicious as we are. That's why I'm waiting for a chance to get close and personal."

"It's going to be sooner than we think."

"However, curiosity can kill a cat," Misato warned. "Remember, what we're getting into is becoming deeper than we ever expected, so we'll have to be extra careful because now I think we have traitors in here."

* * *

"Ikari, I should have told you this as well," Rei said. "It occurred on the last minute as I tried to stop the Angel."

"About what?" Shinji asked.

Rei took a deep breath and spoke, "I liked you."

Shinji blinked. "Y… You do? But you said…"

"I liked you because you are… kind," Rei admitted, cutting him off. "Because you did everything good to me, something that your father hardly does. That is why sometimes I worry about you, thinking about you, and I fill that emptiness in me by having you in my heart."

The First Children bowed her head and continued, "There's a void in me… It's always there, empty, and I feel like as if I was made of straw. I remember being afraid of it, I would fill it up by thinking about your father."

Shinji was speechless. He couldn't believe what she was admitting now to him, especially that she was speaking from the bottom of her heart.

"But one day, before I knew what was happening… you were there inside."

"Me?"

"Until you came, I could not understand myself except I existed because of the Commander. However, because I connected with you I changed, I became different and I have even felt the change in my heart."

Shinji felt his heart swell, seemingly glad that she was crediting him for what she became now.

"There is, however, what I fear… I fear loneliness." Rei's face now had an expression of personal regret.

"Why?" he asked doubtedly.

"The Angel challenged me to look into myself, and she was right that I was truly alone, I was hiding this fact from even you. Forgive me, but the Angel told me without speaking that my heart wanted you only for myself, to see only you."

Rei tried not to burst into tears again, but it was too late as the salty drops spattered her blanket.

"Do I look guilty to you, for me having that sorrow, hatred and distress in my heart?"

Shinji shook his head. "N… No, you were never like that bad to me. You're really amazing, I swear."

"Please forgive me for having these thoughts, but I need you to know what I truly feel."

"Don't," Shinji answered, trying to reassure her as he took the girl into his arms. "You don't have to blame yourself... Instead I thank you for telling this."

Rei rested her head upon Shinji's shoulder, knowing that he was one of the few persons she could actually lean on, but the Commander was not among them: he never did an act like this for her.

* * *

Fuyutsuki was poised to leave, as it appeared that Gendo recovered better out of today's otherwise hard events after he thought about the possibilities of making better use of Kaworu's presence and talent, so the old man felt it was the best time for requests.

"One word before I go," Fuyutsuki said, "Just a favor or two."

"Hmmmm…" Gendo murmured, as his arms and hands were still in the same pose even after a half-hour.

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat. "Is it acceptable if we should just release Miss Langley and return her to Germany as a humanitarian gesture to her parents? You know, I don't think she should remain in that condition for too long."

Gendo frowned, but he was considering Fuyutsuki's request.

"That would be acceptable," Gendo decided. "Provided that she should not tell everyone and everything about our activities, but given her psychological state, I am sure that her words will not be given credence. To the world, she's broken."

"Another thing: what about Doctor Akagi? In the long term, what are you going to do with her now that she's in jail?" Fuyutsuki asked.

The Commander snorted in contempt. "She'll remain here, as she's the only one who knows the MAGI inside and out, and any subordinates under her department may be allowed to ask her for guidance regarding its operation, but should she try once more to derail our plans, then I will have her permanently removed and imprisoned. Her crime will bring her only a discredited reputation more as a conspiracy theorist than a scientist, and no one will accept any of her allegations should she decides to go public."

_Once again, _Fuyutsuki told himself, _he has no regrets judging their fates. _

"Very well, then," Gendo continued, "Tonight I'll sign the release papers for the Second Children, and by tomorrow afternoon she should be gone from here. I am through with useless people."

Fuyutsuki nodded, inwardly displeased with Gendo's use of the derisive word 'useless', but then he thought of the Committee, probably angry by now and demanding for an answer.

"Finally," Gendo spoke, as if he seemed to have read his mind, "Should the Committee know what I did today and they want to talk to me, you shouldn't worry as I will deal with them personally. I am not afraid of a little word-sparring."

* * *

Shinji glanced at the wall clock above the bed, and told him it was past three in the afternoon; still much time to talk about. The First Children felt relieved that her personal self-burden was eased by his presence.

"Thought you might want to know," he began.

"Yes?" Rei asked.

The young man sighed. "Dunno, but I noticed that lately you're really stuck with Kaworu."

"It was necessary that he was required to work with me."

"No… It's something different."

"What do you mean?"

"After I told Kensuke that you and Kaworu look alike," Shinji disclosed, "he thinks both of you make a nice couple. Since the day Kaworu first came here, you couldn't avoid being with him… But I'm okay with you being with him, not against it; I'm really happy about it because I think you… You also need someone besides me to have good company."

Rei was speechless, but Shinji thought otherwise as he wondered if Rei was _falling_ for Kaworu after nearly three days from their first meeting; had things here were normal and all of them were in school, many of Shinji's classmates would've whispered rumors, guessing whether they were made for each other or whatever romantic notions entered their minds, generously fed by nightly local and Korean soap operas.

But Shinji didn't want to hurt Rei by asking too much about her relationship with the Fifth Children; he'll leave that for Rei to find out for herself, just as he was trying to find the meaning of his relationship between him and Asuka.

He wanted to get Asuka out of her misery, but he had none of the power to do so except he was hoping Misato was trying her best even if the odds were mostly against her. It didn't matter if Asuka could return as a pilot; he wanted to see her live, he wanted to settle things and perhaps hopefully they might finally come to terms with themselves.

Just as he was about to resume talking, Kaworu walked in.

"How's it going?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji smiled. "Everything's fine; it's just that we had so much to say as if we haven't seen each other in a long time."

Rei was silent except she made a faint smile of satisfaction.

"I guess that now both of you settled your differences," Kaworu remarked.

Shinji nodded, and turned his attention to Rei.

"Ayanami," he said. "Looks like I have to go because you need to rest."

"Yes, you are right," Rei answered.

"Okay." Shinji stood up from his seat and faced Kaworu. "I'll owe you nothing for her, so today I'm putting my trust on you."

"Thanks," Kaworu replied happily, and he reached out his hand to shake Shinji's. "I never expected that we have a whole day full of surprises."

"That's right," he agreed. "We'll never know what comes next. Again, thanks for saving Ayanami."

Both bowed to each other, before Shinji walked away, smiling and waving his hand at Rei as he left the room. Once they were alone, Kaworu turned to Rei as he sat down on the bedside chair.

"I think he's happy to see you like that," Kaworu said. "He never doubted you this time," he added as he began to push a button on the bed's recliner control to lower it, then he gestured Rei to sit up a bit as he fixed her pillow, before she lay down again. Kaworu covered a blanket over her form.

"Thank you," Rei said as she closed her eyes.

"You're always welcome," Kaworu whispered.

Once she was completely asleep, Kaworu looked at Rei. She looked delicate, at peace with herself, a child and a woman at once. This prompted him to briefly and gently stroke her blue hair with his fingers.

Kaworu felt satisfied that everything was all right between her and Shinji, hoping this rekindled relationship could continue from now on. To be honest and yet he never broached this directly to Rei, Kaworu slowly came to like her despite the girl's character deficiencies, and the odd, unavoidable circumstances seemed to have made them gravitate to each other. Kaworu now also had this growing sentiment of responsibility that Rei owed him for, and that he sensed in her a desire to live.

As he left the room, Kaworu knew that should anything untowards happen to her, he will defend her at all costs.

* * *

In her office, Misato was hunched over her desk, reading every report from the Unit One-induced mayhem that was stacked and emailed to her. Usually folders and emails landed upon her desk after every incident involving the Evas, especially damage reports and repair estimates. She was often annoyed by this bureaucratic morass, but as the officer responsible for all Eva operations, she had to respond to each and every one of them.

Already halfway through the stack her eyes were becoming heavy, no thanks to the exhaustion mostly generated by today's crisis. Misato was feeling sleepy, and now she needed a shot of coffee to jumpstart her system. She grabbed her mug and went to the pantry room where the coffee maker was plugged in.

As she filled the mug with the dark-brown java and added two cubes of sugar, Misato summed up all of the day's events.

_Looks like the Commander is getting desperate,_ she thought. _He suddenly gets this rash idea of kickstarting his dead project. Now that it's dead again, I wonder what's he's going to do next._

Misato sighed, as she sampled her coffee. _Sure, we have the budget and apparently there's no end in sight for us down here, but signs are appearing all over, telling me that our time would be up soon._

_How we would end up? What would happen?_

_Whatever the end would be, I intend that I want to survive once more in the same way I made it out of Antarctica._

Just as she was about to take a sip, Shinji appeared at the pantry's doorway.

"Oh, there you are," Misato said, tabling her coffee mug.

Shinji smiled a little. "Ayanami and I had a long talk," he answered. "She was okay. Don't know how it happened, but suddenly she could remember."

"How did you found out?" she asked, blinking in near-disbelief.

"Well, I asked her if she remembered me bringing her new ID card, and she did… She said it exactly as if it happened yesterday."

Misato suddenly shivered. She then leaned closer to Shinji and whispered, "Fuyutsuki, Doctor Odani and I discussed this a few hours ago, as we found out Rei's different today because apparently Unit One affected her hippocampus. It's a part in the brain that's where your memories are."

"Like psycho…" he stammered, trying to get the spelling right, "Is it like psychological contamination?" he asked.

The older woman shook her head. "No, Shinji, this is completely, damn-crazy _different_. When we say psychological contamination, usually it means that the Eva affects your head by trying to mess up everything inside. Too much and you get brain damage, leave you as a vegetable, or even kill you."

Misato now looked closer into Shinji's eyes. "However, if what you said about Rei remembering everything is for real, then it confirms what we suspected after checking her brain scans and test records. Anyway, I'll try to debrief Rei and Kaworu as soon as they're ready."

Shinji said nothing as she drank her coffee, but then Misato suddenly tabled the mug, gestured to him to come with her and led him out of the pantry. As she passed by her desk, she quickly picked up her purse and pressed the power button on her computer to shut itself down.

"What about those?" he asked, pointing at the junk on the desk. "Where we're going?"

Misato shrugged. "Maybe I'll finish the rest of that crap tomorrow, so come on, you and I should get home and forget this for now. I had enough for this day," she answered.

* * *

Inside the elevator, Kaworu pressed the button for the Cafeteria's level, and the doors closed shut. As the elevator began to move up, he placed his palm over the heart, sensing a strange throbbing inside, before he touched his lips with his fingers.

_I never felt something like this before,_ he contemplated. _I can't even tell what this unusual feeling is. What's going on with me?_ he asked himself.

**

* * *

Author's Note:** This chapter took so much for me to think about (amidst personal problems on my side), trying to guess what happens next and what they would say (and me trying not to allow those personal problems to interfere with the writing). The important thing is that I wanted some of their personal issues to be settled with, but in a gradual way, and then what's left is to deal with some of the other remaining characters, most especially with Asuka and the Command Bridge crew.

We're just getting started.

By the way, today's OP/ED songs for this chapter are Mutemath's "Spotlight", and Angela Aki's "This Love" respectively.


	14. Asuka Langley Soryu, I Presume

While Kaworu was away for dinner, Natsumi Odani attended to Rei and, to get a closer look at her brain, was putting the girl through the MRI scan for another time.

Lying down, as Rei slowly went under the scanner's head, at their workstation Natsumi and a technician looked at the display giving them the results of each scanner pass. She had the scanner adjusted for a finer pass and greater enhancement, with full emphasis on the brain's hippocampus portion. While Rei presently occupied most of her thoughts, the other remaining space was devoted to the written memo handed down from the Commander a while ago, requesting that starting tomorrow morning Asuka's IV-delivered sedatives and medications will be cut off in preparation for her discharge from NERV service.

Glancing at one of the monitors showing the girl onscreen, Natsumi took a microphone on the workstation's counter and told Rei, "How are you doing in there?"

Looking back at the camera, Rei quietly nodded.

"Good. The diagnostics would be for a while," Natsumi reminded her. The other tests included a blood sample, the usual cardio-respiratory checks, and once those tests were finished, a little dinner for the girl. This she asked Rei about it. "What do you want for dinner?"

Rei blinked twice to recall what she most often ate, and then she recalled what she thought to be the best-tasting meal in her entire life. The scene at Shin-Miyanoshita came back to her as if it happened yesterday:

_At the market section of Shin-Miyanoshita, just off the train station, they were at a noodle stand, festooned with large red Chinese lanterns. Already Misato and the Children were assailed by a rich mixture of aroma and flavors, as they sat down and began ordering their food._

_Asuka pointed to Misato, and said, "Hey, I know what you've got in your wallet. Don't worry." She was grinning proudly as she pulled out a wad of extra 1000-yen bills. "This honor student says she wants to come with us for noodles," she added, referring to Rei._

_Misato laughed. "Oh, no, looks like you're pretty serious about chipping in!" Already she had a bowl of spiced wonton noodles with a can of Yebisu on the side._

"_Sure, we've made through it cleanly," Asuka answered before she turned her attention to the cook. "I'd like you to gimme some shark's fin and a large order of baked pork"._

_The cook nodded, proud to have some eager new patrons with a paycheck to blow out, turned his notice to Rei._

"_Miss, what's your order?" he asked cheerfully._

"_I would like to have garlic noodles without Cha-Shu. No grilled pork," Rei answered._

"_And I'd want some pork dumplings with mine," Shinji added._

"_All right, and for that foreign lady here, here's your shark's fin and pork," the cook said, handing Asuka a tray of her dinner, which was hefty with two filled big bowls._

"_Why, thank you," Asuka answered cheerfully._

_As they got their orders and were eating, Shinji gestured at Misato._

"_Yes?" the older woman paused._

"_I'm pretty glad today, because my father praised me for piloting Eva and finishing the mission," Shinji answered cheerfully._

_Asuka faced Shinji and frowned. "And that's why you're a pilot?" she asked, not wanting to be put on second place. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"_

_Shinji made a face. "This isn't your party, either."_

_Misato shook her head. "Ah, come on, guys, we don't have something like this once in a while."_

"Garlic-noodles," Rei answered, "But please do not add pork."

Natsumi smiled. "Got it," she said. "I'll make a call with the cook to do that one for you."

* * *

At the Cafeteria, Kaworu's dinner consisted of soybean sausages, rice and a salad with light dressing, and as he ate his meal in his mind he was replaying the events that occurred throughout the day.

He thought about when he locked lips with Rei while resuscitating her. He could vividly remember the texture and the softness of her lips, amidst the overpowering smell of LCL. Once she opened her eyes, there was this strange new vitality in them, which he had never noticed before.

Finally, there was this tenderness in his heart, a new sensation unlike any other, and he wondered if Chairman Lorenz or his tutors has ever taught him about human feelings.

_No, _Kaworu decided. _I don't remember he said much else about the Lilin, but still I have to learn more as I think I may have understood them for only a fraction._

The gray-haired young man now began to make plans to deal with Asuka.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 14: ASUKA LANGLEY SORYU, I PRESUME  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 3/23/2010 2:28 a3/p3

* * *

Later, back in bed, Rei contemplated about the only time she did slapped Shinji's face out of anger, when they were riding on the escalator. The resurrected memories made her felt what it was like to slap someone's face.

"_Then why you could not trust it? It is the work of your father!"_

But out of that Rei recalled how Asuka slapped her face out of the Second Child's contempt. A hard slap made from all the hate and derision the other girl carried, not knowing that later her deceptive façade came down in a matter of days.

Absently Rei let her hand touch her cheek, trying to recall the pain she received from Asuka's open palm. She knew the anger-filled words from the half-German girl, deriding Shinji and all of his worth and of her warning.

"_Shut up, you frigid bitch! You do anything you're ordered to. You'll waste yourself if Commander Ikari orders you to do so!"_

But Asuka never heeded her advice, whose near-fatal consequences could be sadly seen in a hospital bed, and it made Rei feel disappointed for her.

_I am trying to point out your mistakes... But I am sad for you, Pilot Souryu. I wanted to help you... but you did not listen to me._

Rei sighed softly. _Now if you could only wake up, open your heart and try to talk to me once more, because we are almost the same, whatever the differences between us._

Now as she touched her lips with the tips of her fingers, Rei still wondered who Kaworu was beneath the kindly veneer he possessed.

_For all of what you have said,_ Rei contemplated, addressing Kaworu, _I should have asked you about whom you are and why are you here for. You may be hiding something from me._

* * *

The killer was still in his van, at the same parking lot off Hakone's Route 75, busy monitoring every tapped packet and port coming across his notebook computer, trying to pick up any loose and vital piece of intelligence, when he heard the cellphone go off again. He pressed the button on his earset and spoke, "Yeah?"

"I'm out here now," a man answered, voice scrambled but differently toned from the other man he talked to several hours ago. "Just finished with my shift," he continued, "but something's up from the top brass."

The killer knew that this new caller was an expert mole on the same side he was, a deep-cover agent formerly of the American CIA, currently assigned to NERV's Reports and Requirements section for nearly three years. This section, which received reports from the field and then reprocessed into easy-to-read briefs for the higher-ups, was an excellent position for secretly pilfering the secret flow of information and playing merry hob with the agency's operations, intelligence-gathering activities and general policy-making.

"What's going on?"

"According to Mister Freeze," the mole reported, the well-suited codename referring to Commander Ikari and his cold personality, "tomorrow afternoon he's gonna fire the little primadonna back to where she belongs."

"She's mine. How did you know?" the killer asked. Then he remembered that previously this mole managed to screw up and delay the Second Section's search for the runaway Asuka Langley Soryu by feeding falsified information to the agents in the field. Serving as the killer's information source, the mole was also responsible for providing him the necessary intelligence on Kaji's final whereabouts before eliminating that agent. However, he wasn't aware of the fact that the triple-agent mole was ultimately the one responsible for sabotaging the Bakelite system hours ago.

"The usual paperwork, of course," the mole answered. "He asked for release papers and signed them, then sent out carbon copies for the department heads to read tomorrow. For the most important stuff, he still doesn't trust email and electronic forms, you know. By the way, right now Section Two's chief is in conference with his troops, planning to use armed escorts to keep an eye on her until she's out of here."

The killer silently clenched his teeth, cursing inwardly. Now he'll have to change the mission parameters immediately and before that he needed to tell his employers first about the sudden shift in the situation. At any cost and as he always wanted to finish the job on a proper note, he can't let his quarry – half-dead or not – get away.

* * *

At the balcony outside their apartment, and sated from dinner, Misato was lying on the chaise longues and staring at the night sky above her. On the table beside her, a cordless phone laid there, waiting just in case. In the living room the radio was on, tuned to a rock station and playing a song from Creed, but she could also hear Shinji taking care of the dishes in the sink, water splashing over the clanking plates.

Misato looked at one bright star in the sky, Vega, and wondered how far she made it in her entire life. She sighed, having seen her share of too much personal triumph and tragedy in a single year, but the reason that she didn't quit her job was her avowed promise to fight the Angels purportedly responsible for her father's death.

Oh, she told Shinji before about her reasons to be here. Though she hated her father for being so self-absorbed into his work, of neglecting both Misato and her mother, only after she survived Second Impact did she wondered if there was a reason to love or hate her father.

Joining NERV, she believed, was the only way for her to be free of his spell. However, Kaji always reminded Misato of her father's personality, which made her gravitate towards that man. How she tried to be someone else, to bury her old self, but Kaji broke open her scars and let them bleed.

His death was a final blow to all that she would have wanted in life; afterwards there was little else she could go to. Perhaps it's time for her to move on, find someone else or endure the winter of her singleness.

It didn't matter for Misato if she could die as an old maid, as long as she must live her life to the fullest.

Which brought her to another thing she must at least appreciate before her number is up.

"Shinji," Misato called out. "You're finished in there?"

"Yeah," the young man answered from the kitchen.

"Can you get _us_ some beer from the fridge?"

"What? You're nuts, I can't drink," Shinji objected.

Misato shook her head, realizing there was a standing prohibition against under-twenty drinking, but anyway there were no cops in this war zone of a neighborhood, or for that matter, no neighbors either in this apartment block; everyone else had packed and moved away, never to return. "Doesn't matter," she answered. "Screw the age limit, just grab the six-pack and come here."

Shinji arrived with the six-pack of Yebisu, and as the young man laid it down onto a table and Misato pried out one of the cans, yanking the tab away, she said, "Come on, open another for yourself, but don't be shy. Honestly, I'm not teaching you to be a drunkard like me, but I want you to learn an experience you might use someday when you're going to socialize with people, especially when they offer you a drink."

"O… Okay," Shinji answered as he sat down on a chair and pulled the tab of his own beer. All he knew was that beer was bitter-tasting, but considering their grim circumstances, he couldn't refuse her offer. He put the can close to his lips, smelled it as he was hesitant, before he told himself, _Never mind, I have to at least try,_ he took a sip.

"Unless you explain that you have a liver problem," Misato added, "it's impolite to refuse a gesture of goodwill."

Shinji grimaced at the taste of his first beer, before swallowing it hard. _Damn, it's so bitter._

Misato shook her head. "That's what the first-timers do when they have their first drink," she advised. "After a few more, the bitterness doesn't matter as the true essence of the brew becomes apparent."

"Really?"

Misato nodded. "That's true. Just take it easy on every sip, don't go overboard or you might not be able to swallow more of your drink."

Shinji took a deep breath and this time he drank a little more of his beer. In approval, Misato raised her can.

After a silent moment, Shinji was the first to ask, breaking the silence. "What made you share your beer with me?"

"You and I have will have a one-on-one discussion, so tonight I must make an apology to you," the older woman answered morosely, "for trying to get you in bed. I'm really sorry, that was the only thing I thought would be good." Misato then sighed.

Shinji said nothing, still holding his can.

"No, it's been real stupid of me doing that. I just don't know what else I could do to keep you from being sad. I wanted to forget, try at least making my brain go blank, wishing not to think who killed him. I felt fucking helpless as I wasn't able to save Kaji's life. How I wish I could. Lust was then the only other acceptable escape, but you proved me wrong, snapped me back to my senses…"

"Then I accept your apology," Shinji answered. "I now understand."

"Thanks," Misato spoke sadly, gesturing with a finger crossing her chest over the heart, a solemn promise. "I'm not going to do that again, ever."

Misato thought for a moment, and then said, "I should have said this for a long time but we can't live on while we blame ourselves. The more we worry, the more we can't move on. Then we get so paralyzed with self-blame that we can't stop more bad things from happening. So the best thing we have to do is to think and talk about the better days, the only things that can at least prevent us from going nuts, and then move on if we can."

For a while they looked at the stars and the distant glow at the horizon, wondering what else to say.

"One question, have you told us what you were doing at my age?" Shinji asked, wishing to change the subject.

"No… Not until now," Misato answered. "I'm just like you, trying to live an ordinary life, going to school but being at home was far from everyone else's families. I come home after school, and all I see is my mom crying on the table or shouting at Dad on the phone, telling him to drop his damned project and go home. Made me worried about the neighbors at first as they fought every night, but later on I learned that I could shut all that shit out with my earphones on while finishing my homework."

"Sounds like Father," Shinji said. The disc jockey on the radio was now playing Linkin Park's "Leave Out All the Rest".

"Yeah, right," Misato agreed. "I always envied my classmates everyday, wishing at least Dad should be like their fathers who can understand both me and my mom. But when you're a scientist's daughter and all day he thinks about the Nobel Prize while at the lab, it's hard to have a good life. So the only thing better for me then was to go downtown with my 'Yankee' classmates till past midnight. Drinking, partying, dating, smoking, or for some of these girls, try _enjou-kosai – _streetwalking – and fuck an old businessman with a Benz for chump change to buy expensive stuff; or worse, drugging themselves with ravers' tablets or hitting a marijuana joint. But what they're doing is too far, and I avoid being dragged into such traps, so the only vice I did was getting drunk."

Shinji nodded, and then drank more of his beer. "Just like running away," he said after a gulp, still grimacing from the bitter aftertaste.

"That's how we tried to deal with the pain and broken homes. Escape is all we knew then, as most of my generation only understood after the bubble burst; those born in the eighties grew up in a nice house with parents having a fat paycheck everyday, then suddenly the economy goes south on them, suddenly their parents lost their jobs, and quickly those kids were struggling for their lives by the time they finish high school or college; working part-time, going from one job to another, but never finding the right one. There's no real security, and all we do to alleviate the boredom was to escape for even one night."

Misato looked into Shinji's eyes and said, "Strange, we're sharing a common sentiment; we're trying to run away, not wanting to face the music. That's why I'm trying to confront my issues now, and that's why right here and now I'm sharing my past with you, so I hope you could do the same for me."

* * *

Kaworu was back from dinner, and after he was out of the elevator, he approached the nurses' duty station where Nurse Chigusa – Miss Takako Chigusa, RN as her desk plaque proclaimed her name – was sitting behind the counter, busying herself with a nail file while a stack of finished reports were on the counter, and her iPod was playing the latest _enka_ hit from Jero. Chigusa glanced up at the young man with gray hair.

"What can I do for you, Mister…?" she asked, brushing her long pony-tailed black hair away from her elfin-shaped face to the back of the neck.

"I'm Kaworu Nagisa, one of the Eva pilots," he said, introducing himself. "I would like to visit Miss Langley."

"Oh," Chigusa blurted, before looking up at the wall clock. "Isn't it a little past the usual visiting hours?" She pointed at the poster listing several visitation rules.

"But I need to see her now, even if she's asleep."

Takako Chigusa weighed on his suggestion, before she quickly grabbed a keycard and stood up. "Come with me," she said, walking out of her station.

They walked along the hallway, past Rei, who was sleeping in her room at the moment, and then they came upon Asuka's door. Chigusa swiped the keycard in and the door lock clicked to open. Before Kaworu could go inside, the nurse gave him a reminder.

"I'll allow you only up to an hour, and afterwards, you'll have to go. That's all the time you can have."

Kaworu nodded. "I understand," he replied.

Chigusa smiled. "Thanks, Mister Nagisa. Call me through the intercom when you need something or when you're about to leave. I'll be waiting at my station."

"Thank you, too, ma'am. I'll keep that in mind."

The nurse left him and Kaworu shut the door gently. He walked up and sat on a chair besides Asuka's bed and then he looked at the girl lying in repose. He also noticed the thick bandages on her wrists, a sign she tried to take her life. On her face was an expression of mixed anger and sadness, as it was obvious she was dreaming something cruel. The only movement she made was the heaving of her chest while breathing, and sounds merely the rhythm of her breathing and the beeping monitors that showed her vital signs. Above the bed, fixed to the wall and close to the ceiling, was a CCTV camera. He wasn't sure who's watching her, but anyway he looked up to the camera and smiled. He hoped that the guy keeping them under surveillance was okay and didn't mind him being here.

"Here goes nothing," he intoned almost quietly.

Kaworu took a deep breath and gently took hold of her right hand. He now felt the psychic link as they made contact, but this time he could control the flow as he closed his eyes. In this state he saw flashes of light and images, mostly consisting of her memories and thoughts. He could hear her yell, scream, whine, and every one of her lamentations, until he found himself standing in the middle of an arid field of dried grass. But this wasn't a pastoral scene.

It was more like a war zone or a cemetery, skulls and femurs scattered here and there.

The sky was blood-red and the clouds were dark and ominous, foreboding of death. The air was still and lifeless, but reeking with the sharp smell of burned sulfur and blood, while the reddish sun shone like the evil eye of Sauron affixed onto the mournful heavens.

_This is her dream, _Kaworu thought. _No, it's her nightmare. Death and death is everywhere._

He glanced around to take in his surroundings, and espying a house nearby, he walked to that direction.

* * *

Around the abandoned, wrecked house were dead trees, with not even one brown-aged leaf on their branches. The tall grass that grew over the front yard was dry and yellowed.

The house itself was half-destroyed, its roof shorn free of its ceramic tiles and the walls were decaying and infested with termites. The rice-paper doors were ripped and punched out, and the tatami mats inside the house were ancient, encrusted with dust.

It would have been a world of nothing but death and sadness, of humanity faded into non-existence, had it not for existence of this melancholic, lonely young girl who was soaking in a bathtub full of dirty water. Besides was a chair with her clothes, neatly folded.

This was one of Asuka's nightmares, and she was by herself, wishing to die.

Her hair was messed up and moist with the same dirty water, Asuka was pale-faced with catatonia, distant blue eyes staring at the bloody sky above that she can see through the huge maw where the roof once used to be. The showerhead protruded into her line of vision, and she could see the encrusted rust on it.

Tears ran down her cheeks... as she thought of the great folly of her boisterous words from years before:

"_Mommy! Mommy! They selected ME!"  
"I'm an elite pilot, ready to protect mankind! The best in the world! It's a secret to everybody, but I'll tell you mom! Everybody is so nice and so cool to me, and I'm not lonely... I'm OK, even though I don't have Father... Look at me! Look at me!"  
"Hey Mom—"  
TWACK!_

"S... Sync rate zero..." she mumbled sadly, her hands shaking. "I'm not worthy... no reason to exist..."

Sobs followed with tears streaking on her dirtied cheeks.

"No one looks at me... everybody hates me... ignores me... There's no reason... no reason for me to... live."

With great, painful effort, Asuka reached her hand out to a soap dish, except that the object that was in her grasp was not a bar of soap, but a piece of razor-sharp glass. The shining object of death gleamed with the faded reddish light, as Asuka slowly let it come close to her wrist, preparing to cut deep into the flesh.

But just as she was about to make the final, fatal gesture of her self-defeat, a human voice rang out of nowhere.

"Asuka Langley Soryu, I presume?"

Startled, the voice alone caused Asuka to drop the glass shard onto the floor.

"W... What?" she whispered.

"What you're doing is futile," the voice warned back. It was a young man's voice, mature-sounding in the way he spoke as if he had learned a great deal about the world.

"Leave me alone!" she suddenly yelled out, making the water around her to splash, shattering the melancholy away instantly from her heart.

"I can't," the voice refused, "Because if I leave you, then you will learn nothing from me. You will lose everything and things can get worse if you try to kill yourself."

"I don't give a fuck about you, so leave me alone and let me die!" Asuka cursed, her teeth angrily clenched, wishing she had the strength to get up and slap this intruder in the face.

Disappointed, the unseen voice sighed. "No way shall I leave you alone, unless you have to listen to me."

"Who are you? What the hell you want? Are you the Angel that screwed me?" Asuka desperately questioned back.

"No," the persistent voice disagreed. "If I was that Angel, then I would've killed you right now by making you brain-dead. But I have no malicious urge to kill anyone, not even you, because I have a good reason to be here. And I am not an Angel."

"Answer me! What do you want from me?"

"I want to be your friend and I want to help you," the voice reasoned, "because you're drowning and I'm not going to be here and watch you die for nothing."

"You're not my friend. Go away!"

"Face the truth, then. Who was the first person who really cared for you?"

"What?"

"That person may be the only one who does love you, because that same person has understood who and what you are. I know that you hate certain kinds of people whom you think are lesser than you... when in fact they're just as strong and weak as you are, albeit much differently. So think about it before you die in that corner, for it is the fate of everything that's at stake."

By the sheer force of this stranger's intuition and knowledge of her grave situation, Asuka was silenced.

"You're smart, I believe, and I expect that you should be capable of solving your problems so easily. So we go back to the first question: who is the first person you know who cared and worried about you?"

Asuka resignedly hung her head, and gave out the first sane answer. "Hikari," she whispered.

The voice sighed. "Hikari... So she is the one person who knows what's wrong with you, but was there was a time when both of you disagreed?"

Asuka shook her head. "No... I have never done anything bad to her... It's... It's just that we have something in common," she admitted and let off a sigh. "Well... Because I feel that we're above everyone else."

"Still," the voice intoned, "It is good to know that despite your differences in terms of social status, you did become friends... But, what do you think of the other people around you?"

"I don't like them..."

"Why?"

"Because... they're different... they suck."

"Ah..." the voice answered, "There's one more catch, however. Have you understood about what's ticking beneath Shinji? Or even within Rei? Or the sad facade that's beneath Misato's smile?"

"No!" Asuka loudly spat back.

"No? I want something to tell you about these people, Asuka. They nearly have the same problems as you are, that is, growing up hard and bitter, their inner pain drawn from their respective pasts. And you, of course, seen the worst of your life. Your mother died by her hand, am I right?"

That touched a chord in Asuka's heart. "Y... Yes," she mumbled. "She told me to... Die with her."

The voice sighed. "Is it the greatest fear you've seen?"

"Yes..."

"So that's one of the cruel visions that you always wanted to run away from... Hmmm, just as I thought of what Shinji did -- running away from fear caused by the past..."

Asuka frowned and shouted, "Because he's a coward!"

"Imprecise, but listen to me," the voice countered. "Committing suicide is a futile gesture, because by killing yourself, common sense is relinquished and the love for life. And Shinji isn't what you think. He is, from what I have heard from him, a person with a traumatic past who just happens to be stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time... Thrown into a very dangerous situation he had never experienced before. So you're no different from him."

"Why did you pull Shinji into this?" Asuka questioned.

"Because I have understood what's wrong with him, so I am doing all of this explaining to you to set everything straight before it's too late. And so it's up to you to decide whether you stay here and suffer... or you can will yourself to wake up from this nightmare and live again. As your new lifeguard, I want you to think about it, and when you have an answer, I'm ready to listen and help you out."

"But..." Asuka trailed away and tried to get up, but she couldn't, realizing that her feet were deadened and unable to move.

So she remained still in the tub full of dirty water, deciding whether to live or to die.

_

* * *

When I was younger  
I saw my daddy cry  
And curse at the wind  
He broke his own heart  
And I watched  
As he tried to reassemble it_

The rock station was on the opening verses of Paramore's "The Only Exception". Misato heard the song five years ago, and it struck her then how much it paralleled her life. Now that the song was being played again, it reminded her once more of Kaji.

"How appropriate," Misato remarked about the song, remembering the lyrics.

"You mean the song?" Shinji asked, trying not to sound drunk. Already they were at their second can of Yebisu, and there on the table was a half-full plate of takoyaki that Shinji cooked in the microwave oven.

Misato chuckled and then added, "Yeah, he's my exception. I can remember everything about him."

Oh, in her thoughts she imagined Kaji's hugs and kisses, his characteristic warmth and charm, his sense of humor and the little jokes she laughed at. Once more she remembered the scent of his cologne, the stubble on his chin, the ripples of his chest and pectorals, and, above all, the pain as he entered into her. Good God, everything came back to her, the things she once used to do with Kaji, every single moment like they happened yesterday.

"The first time I heard it, Kaji and I were at a beer joint in Hamburg, just after we got accepted into Gehirn, and you know, later became NERV. After a few bottles, he asked me if we could dance, and I said, yes. On the floor, he told me if it's okay if he could try to mend our bridges again after we broke up for a year."

Shinji tried to picture Misato and Kaji dancing together, their bodies intertwined as the music played.

"Told him it's all right, as at the time I was then doubtful about my love life: after I broke up with Kaji for the first time, I tried dating other men, but didn't have what I wanted. They expected their women to be soft and compliant, like some mail-order bride, and I wasn't. Hell, they couldn't stand me at all. So I was back to square one with Kaji, even though I was afraid of him because he makes me think too much of my father."

Misato took a swig from her can, as talking about Kaji somehow made her feel better.

"Next thing afterwards, despite being unsure, I was stuck with him again; he taught me to ride a surfboard while on vacation; went onto long road trips across Germany and into Switzerland, where he gave me tips on how to deal with the S-curves while driving; we rode the ICE train to Berlin where we walked under the trees at the parks there, then treated me to dinner, talking about our work, and well, I think you know what happens afterwards, just like in the movies. He tried to make me happy in any way he could, encouraged me to forget about the reason for the scar on my body."

"After about eleven months, Kaji was reassigned to take care of Asuka, and I was being sent to another NERV posting. We had a little farewell dinner at Frankfurt, before my flight, just said our goodbyes without regret, but deep inside I knew that we would be seeing each other soon, though I was then doubtful if the flame ever to be reignited again. He may be a bit like my father, but it's hard to forget."

Finally she remembered the drunken night about confessing to Kaji about her real sentiments, her dreams and fears, but otherwise he smothered her with his kiss, a moment when her mind went blank, all of her personal misgivings washed away in the torrent of that single kiss.

_I've got a tight grip on reality  
But I can't  
Let go of what's in front of me here  
I know you're leaving  
In the morning, when you wake up  
Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream_

Misato closed her eyes, as she lip-synched to the remaining lyrics, her mind's eye looking back when they were kissing under that clear night sky, a moment when they were alone and they had the right to lose themselves.

_And I'm on my way to believing  
Oh, and I'm on my way to believing_

* * *

Kaworu, remaining in Asuka's dream and still telepathically linked to her, never showed himself to the girl as he watched her from the corner, this time the girl was no longer in the tub but instead she was pacing around, fully clothed in her school uniform, on the platform of a train station. There were no passing trains, there was nobody else waiting but Asuka.

"To live… then what I can do?" Asuka asked. Now she remembered Rei's warning about closing her heart and mind from her Eva.

"It's my fault," she mumbled. "But how can I open myself?"

"The only way you can do is to open your heart to others," Kaworu said, now appearing before Asuka. She blinked twice.

"W… Who are you? Are you the one who talked to me?" she asked, flabbergasted.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I am. My name's Kaworu Nagisa, but don't get angry at me."

Wishing to grab the collar of his shirt, and to blast him out with her fury, Asuka tried to move but she was frozen in place, her feet unable to move an inch. She frowned, her teeth clenched.

"That Eva of yours isn't going to move unless you're willing to open your heart," Kaworu reminded her.

"Isn't it what Wondergirl said to me, am I right?" Asuka questioned. "She thinks I'm real stupid not to do that… but now… I think she's right."

Kaworu sighed. "Trying to shut out the past isn't going to help," he said. "You have to let go, accept the past as the truth as it's not going to go away."

"Forgetting it is the only way I can be strong!" Asuka yelled back.

"You're doing it wrong," Kaworu answered. "Listen to me, the more you deny the past, the more it'll haunt you until it'll consume you completely. I don't know whether you'll like it or not, but I have seen more of your past than you could ever imagine."

Asuka was again surprised, her rage stopped cold. "You have seen everything about me? All of it?"

Kaworu nodded. "That's right. You're really an orphan, having lost your mother when she attempted what is called a contact experiment with your Eva, and from there you became a different person. Your father went on to marry his mistress, and you were so angry about her, thinking she messed up your life and all. Piloting Eva was then your only option to be different, to be on top, but also to deny the past. You believed that by being a pilot, you derive strength and integrity, yet now you fell down so hard you couldn't get up."

The redhead was silenced again, inwardly astonished that this Kaworu Nagisa knew it all, even the ones that she thought she had forgotten.

"That's not all. I wonder why you're trying to get along with a man named Ryoji Kaji," he added. "Does trying to be with him make you feel like a… how you say it, a grown-up?"

"I was wrong," Asuka said, almost mumbling, "Completely wrong. He couldn't accept what I am... even as I tried…"

"Then I'm afraid he's correct," Kaworu answered. He knew what she was about to say next about popping open her blouse before Kaji in the middle of the night, on the deck of an aircraft carrier. He also knew what Asuka said before that man, lying on the deck and trying to ignore her advances.

On the platform's floor, Asuka went down onto her knees, as if she was tired of it all.

"I've lost, you see," Asuka whispered, covering her face with both palms. "Everything's gone, I'm so wrong, and so all I had to try is to kill myself."

"You can't," Kaworu said. "Shinji was real worried about you, just as he was worried about Rei. Well, almost everyone's worried about you."

Asuka looked up, palms taken away. "Why?"

Kaworu sat down on the floor and faced Asuka. "To be fair to you, he's really anxious about everyone around him, except maybe for his father. Well, in your case he couldn't just live being alone, or at least someone he wanted to talk to, so you're one of the few persons left to be the ones he can communicate with. He's also the only one who, correct me if I'm wrong, keep your feelings in check as well as taking care of the things you have. Another thing I found out is that there's really no difference between the both of you: no mothers, with weaknesses, and many reasons to run away. I understand that your mother tried to kill you, am I right?"

Asuka hung down her head. "Y… Yes, she did," she whispered.

"Perhaps that's not her that you've seen on that day," Kaworu said. "Perhaps she lost a part of herself so that she was no longer the mother you recognize."

From Asuka's back he saw a younger version of herself being strangled down by her mother, wearing a hospital gown, with both hands gripping the girl's neck. Displeased, Kaworu blotted out the image away.

"Now, let me tell you something: once you let your hatred and that self-delusion consume you there's nothing else you can recover. Then you're really gone, you lose your sense of humanity. I tell you again, you have to accept the past and let it go, and only then you find your own measure of peace as well as peace with your fellows. Be yourself, never be pretentious, and then you will live, and you'll discover true happiness. Of course, by that time your Eva will move again, as you should know that Evas have their own minds."

Asuka sighed. "So, does it mean that I have to change myself?"

Kaworu smiled. "That's right, as long as you just have to do it right. There's so much in you to live for. I'm not joking; you could also do a lot of good."

The gray-haired young man now offered his hand to her. Asuka for a moment, hesitated, before she took his hand into hers and both of them stood up. The redhead took a deep breath and tried to give her best impression before Kaworu.

"I'll try," Asuka said, but with a weak smile. "You could be right."

"One more thing, though," Kaworu spoke, inwardly happy to see Asuka recover a measure of self-confidence. "I believe that ever since you were put into sedation Shinji really wants to see you wake up."

"Me?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I guess he's thinking of you most of the time, so I think you should talk to him. Negotiate and understand both of your own situations, and don't hesitate about bringing out your past. However, I don't know but have you… touched lips with him, is it correct?"

Asuka glowered, as if Kaworu never heard of kissing. "You mean kissing? Well, yes we did."

"Ah, kissing," Kaworu answered, repeating the word in his mind, recalling about giving Rei the breath of life, before he chuckled. "Thanks for correcting me," he added, scratching his head as though clearly embarassed.

"My pleasure. I kissed Shinji just to try him out. Why did you ask?"

Kaworu shrugged, with shoulders aloft. "I was just wondering about it."

There was a silent moment between them, before the Fifth Children decided that it was his time to go.

"Are you ready to take my advice when you wake up?" Kaworu asked.

"I'm not sure, but I'll give my best shot," Asuka answered.

"It's no different from piloting Eva, but life's more challenging because I know there's much more besides being an Eva pilot."

"I'll learn about that, too. Thanks… What's your name again?"

"Kaworu Nagisa."

Asuka nodded. "Thanks, Kaworu, I think I could sleep well."

"No problem. I might see you later," Kaworu answered. "Don't refuse any help if you're real stuck, so remember that."

The gray-haired stranger vanished from the platform, leaving Asuka alone on the station platform. The redhead yawned as she went for the benches and lay down as if she was about to take a nap.

"He's right," she whispered to herself, slowly falling to sleep. "There's a lot to… live for."

The dreamworld around Asuka quickly winked out of existence.

* * *

Kaworu opened his eyes and shook his head. Now, standing up from his seat, he looked at Asuka, who was still unmoving. This time her facial expression was relaxed, a telling sign that Kaworu hoped she took his advice to heart.

Satisfied with his attempt at communicating with Asuka within, Kaworu went to a waiting intercom and pressed a button for Takako Chigusa, who was at her duty station.

"I'm done," Kaworu said into the speaker.

* * *

The towering twelve slate-black monoliths appeared at once before Gendo Ikari, who looked unfazed at their sudden arrival. As if it the digits were glowing, hostile-red eyeballs, SEELE 01 stared down at the bearded Commander, and the remaining monoliths would serve as mute witnesses of the verbal battle that was to begin.

"I know what you will be asking from me," Gendo said. "I do not hide anything."

"Yes," Keel answered from behind his electronic monolith. "Care to explain what happened, and what are you doing with the Evangelions?"

"It was a routine experiment, a test run. I planned to reinstate the First Children for duty, with a compatibility test with Unit One, should there would be any foreseeable operational problems with the other Children."

Keel grumbled. "And it failed, am I correct?"

With two fingers, Gendo merely adjusted his glasses as if he acknowledged his mistake. "Yes, but it was unavoidable," he said calmly. "When we deal with the Evas, however, there is always little room for error, and we all know that and their tendency to be unpredictable. Therefore, in the final analysis of this attempted test, I have decided not to have it repeated again."

"Then why did you have the Fifth Children involved?"

"It is necessary that we must have someone to keep an eye on the First and to assist her should a problem arises, just as what happened yesterday."

Inwardly, Gendo was irritated to know that someone on the inside probably snitched on his activities, and he would have to deal with it after this meeting. He could not believe that there were still some leaks coming out of here even after several tight rings of security.

"Besides his guardian duty on that day, do you have anything else to say about his other activities?" Keel questioned.

Gendo shook his head. "Nothing, except what he was required to do according to your directives, especially as he is the replacement for the Second Children."

"Speaking of the Second Children, do you have further plans for that young woman?"

"No, except I have determined that it is necessary that due to her psychological condition and therefore she is no longer able to pilot, she would be discharged from active duty effectively today this afternoon."

"I see," Keel said. "So after many months of her trying to prove her worth, in the end this Second Children is now a liability, and surprisingly expendable. What a waste of money, all because of childhood trauma that the Angel was able to exploit her only weakness."

Gendo said nothing, but not making any expression nor a gesture. He knew they were all watching him, but inside he had no regrets sending Asuka back to where she came from.

"What about Doctor Akagi?" Keel inquired.

"Despite her incarceration, I intend that she will remain here for our purposes. Her absence does not affect our day-to-day operations, in any way, as I have already selected Doctor Natsumi Odani, a knowledgable replacement with similar skills. In addition, her subordinate Lieutenant Ibuki knows the workings of the MAGI and, based on previous experience, is able to work on her own without further guidance. Unlike Akagi, and as they are loyal, they will not countermand any order I issue."

Behind their monoliths, Keel and the rest of the Committee opened the electronic dossier on Odani and quickly scanned her brief biography. Some of them felt pleased with Gendo's choice of replacement, but Keel had something else in mind.

"Now, however, have you found the Fifth Children suitable for your purposes?"

"Yes," Gendo answered, "there was no doubt about him and his abilities. He has surpassed all our expectations."

Behind the monolith, Keel shook his head in disbelief and pleasure. He couldn't believe that Gendo had taken his bait, hook and sinker, not realizing Kaworu's true potential.

"For a moment, let us first deliberate regarding your recent actions," he said, before the entire Committee put Gendo on hold.

As the Commander was waiting, standing in attention, the rest of the Committee debated on Gendo's character and actions, with Keel listening to their opinions. Behind their digital monoliths, at least three members decided on a wait-and-see attitude, arguing that Ikari can be monitored; another three considered about paring down the current NERV budget to only half as a penalty; then one demanded that Ikari should be replaced by a more competent and compliant leader; but the remaining membership merely listened.

Until Keel, as the final decision-maker, gave word that he has made a judgment after the rest conceded on a single resolution.

"Unanimously, we are satisfied by your explanation regarding the matter about your experiment turned into a costly blunder, and thus we forgive you for this deviant transgression by admitting responsibility and then promising us that you will no longer repeat failed initiatives any further."

Keel paused to clear his throat.

"We, however, give you one final warning: this is the last time we will tolerate any of your maverick actions as a Commander, as you are deviating further from our plans. From now on, because of severe time constraints, there will be no second chances, no reprieves, no appeals, and strictly no more room for errors. If you or your subordinates break any of our directives, then our decisions will be final and binding, our collective judgment is yours to take, and our penalties will be exacting and harsh. Is that clear, Commander Ikari?" Keel asked loudly, tapping out the last five words with an index finger on his desk as if to emphasize them.

There was sudden silence after Keel's final question, with the rest of the Committee waiting for Gendo's reply.

"Yes, I will take your word. There will be no mistakes this time," he lied, hoping that these old fools would believe him again.

At least they never knew all along that he has full possession of Adam in his palm, and in addition he was also determined to survive long enough to see the fruition of his life's work and finally come face to face with his wife.

* * *

Misato and Shinji were on their last cans of Yebisu when it was his turn to talk. Already the alcohol has exacted a hard toll on his body, making him dizzy, and yet also wondering if he could keep on being awake should Misato demand for a second six-pack from the refrigerator. This time, the rock station on the radio was playing Smashing Pumpkins' "Landslide".

"I don't know what I could talk about, but…" Shinji trailed away, "I wonder if it's okay if I could talk about the girls."

Misato nodded. "Sure, I'm all ears."

"I told you about me talking to Ayanami, and she told me about the times when we were together. I liked her then, but not something like love… I can't say what kind of relationship was that."

"I think it's called a platonic relationship," Misato corrected him. "You're very close friends with the opposite sex, but not really lovers."

Shinji nodded. "I get it. You see, I'm not falling for her completely, not romantically, but anyway I helped her whenever she had a problem, like when she tried to make some tea and got her fingers burned. Or when she had an issue with her school papers, and I… I mean, me and Toji had to bring to her those papers."

The young man sighed. "I _like_ her, in a certain way, but I wanted her to be at least happy, and I was sure she was growing up inside until Unit Zero was destroyed. But now, I'm really glad to see her back, though she seems to be spending more time with Kaworu."

Misato shrugged. "Okay, there's something else apart from telling him what happened down there, as the Sub-Commander told me about Rei, just before Unit One went nuts... He said he's responsible for her, but that's all. Later he never brought it up again as we were too busy doing damage control."

"How? Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe he was involved in creating dozens of her, or he might be even the one who _actually_ created Rei."

Shinji blinked, wondering how Misato came to that conclusion. "You mean… in a sense he's her _father_?"

"It's possible, because I believe that, on the basis of Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki's background, Rei was probably created as a test subject for stem cell, rapid cell regeneration and cloning research, which would have been very useful for Eva R&D. You can't build an Eva without first learning advanced bioengineering and cloning on a smaller scale. Of course, there's also the possibility that there's more to Rei than we ever know, like she was used in constructing the Dummy Plug."

"It… It makes sense," Shinji said, "Just like connecting the dots."

Misato shook her head. "Whatever role the Sub-Commander has played in making Rei, I feel that he'd been forced under pressure to accomplish the tasks given to him. Now he's real worried about what else your father could do with Rei and the rest of you guys, so lately he's soft on us, trying to help in any way he could, trying to keep your father's tendencies in check."

Shinji remembered something else coming from the aftermath of Ritsuko's actions down at the Dummy Plug Plant: he wondered what connection Rei had with his mother? And what his father was trying to do with them?

Sure, he could connect the dots, but what connects them? What was the truth? Of course the only ones who could answer more of his gnawing questions were Fuyutsuki and Doctor Akagi.

Now since his father and Ayanami could not provide the truth, it made sense that he should talk to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, except that the old man must first be persuaded to bring the secrets out into the light. Further persuasion may not be necessary in this case, however, as seen from the deteriorating relationship between those two NERV leaders over his father's actions.

As the coming end looms near, does it mean that the lines are being drawn? Drawn between those who agree with his father, and those who don't? Or, depending on the truth, can this nightmare train continue to hurtle onto an uncertain destination, or be ground to a halt in the middle?

Whatever the case, Shinji realized that this morass he was in is bigger than he ever expected, and there's this jigsaw puzzle of the entire picture that was missing the pieces, he must find each and every one of them.

So far he only had half the picture, and maybe even less.

"Anyway, you still have any issues with Asuka?" Misato asked, changing the subject.

"No," Shinji disagreed, his reverie snapped out, "not anything bad, but she's still in my mind, too. I kinda missed the way she does whenever I'm stuck with her. I don't care now if she were to be back, even if she shouts at me again. But in my heart I'm sure she'll be different."

"Funny, but the other day in the car, I heard you saying that you kissed her," Misato remarked.

"It's true I did," Shinji answered, quickly blushing. "I tried, but I couldn't follow her up and found myself needing a breath. Can't tell why she asked me to do it, except maybe she was testing me."

Misato shook her head, snickering. "You're supposed to do at least move your lips a bit to have a small opening just to catch a breath, like this singer who sometimes moves his lips to between his lines to get some air."

Shinji sulked. "And I don't know as I'm really dumb at it. How can I do it right as she pinched my nose because she thinks my breathing ruins the kiss?" he complained.

"Good grief, she's doing it wrong," Misato said, before laughing out loud. "When kissing, try to be natural and go with the flow. Don't be afraid to have a bit of head and body movement, because just being frozen right there gives no meaning to the kiss. It's entirely an expression of your mind, heart and body. As if it's not enough, cup her chin gently with your hand to keep your lips planted properly. Don't push too hard, but be slow and gentle."

Shinji nodded, reimagined the scene with Asuka but differently. "Now I got what you mean." The young man wistfully smiled.

"By the way… I wondered if Fuyutsuki got my request through," Misato said. "I bet that given that he's close enough to your father than anyone else, Asuka could be out of here sooner than we expect."

"But she may not be able to pilot anymore," Shinji spoke, abruptly concerned.

"It would be the least of her problems. At best, she could at try a bit to be normal again, but at worse she could remain as she is right now. Actually, it's really up to her whether she could change or not, as long as she doesn't do anything drastic to endanger herself like following her mother's footsteps."

Shinji took a drink from his can, swallowed, and then said, "I think there's little difference between us, though, just as you said about her life back at Hikari's. Maybe we'll understand each other, then. Maybe then I could make up all the mistakes I made with her."

Misato sighed as an idea entered her thoughts.

"Know what?" she said, "I was wondering what would happen should our job's done here in this place, like what if we defeated all the Angels? Me, I don't know but if we win, I think I could just go back to normal, like becoming a teacher… What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, I don't really know how you'll end up once all of this is over."

"I just want to forget all of this and live like everyone else. I want some peace, I want to learn, I don't want to think about the nightmares I had, I like to be feeling okay while being with my buddies, and I don't want to spend my days looking behind my back, or wondering how much praise I could get. I want to be ordinary."

Misato got up from her chaise and sat on the edge, and holding her can, prepared to toast with Shinji. The young man raised his can as well.

"Well, to those who left before us, and to world peace… Fuck war," she avowed.

Surprised, Shinji shook his head at her cursing, but he smiled weakly, figuring that she was getting tired of the morass they were stuck in. "Fuck war," he agreed.

And their cans clanked together, before in unison they emptied the remaining Yebisu down and straight into their guts.

* * *

In his room and lying on his futon, finally able to retire for the evening after what amounted to a very long day, Kaworu was contemplating at what would happen in the next few days, guessing whether his presence has altered everything at NERV. Sure, he knew that SEELE would be expecting results, sure they wanted their plans to be on track, but today's events have changed him as well. He wondered what everyone else was doing at the moment.

"I don't know how my actions would affect you all, but all I wanted is to make yourselves get ready for the worst," he whispered to himself.

"Because… I will be the prelude to the end of all things."

For a moment he imagined Rei facing him, and added, "I hope in the end you'll also understand me and my reasons."

One final thing bothered him, though.

What if Asuka wakes up the next morning and finds out that he's the current pilot of her Eva? Given her temper, Kaworu hoped in some way, by explaining properly, then she must calmly accept the fact that he's her replacement, and that she needed a break.

Kaworu yawned before he closed his eyes. _I'll never know what would happen next._

**

* * *

About seven hours later…**

Asuka woke up with a start, her eyes blinking and trying to adjust themselves to the glare of the morning sun reflected from the Geofront's solar condenser blocks, but because of her prolonged sleep it took a while to focus her eyes. She could also smell the heavy pine-scent of Lysol that was mopped onto the floors, and heard the life-support systems beeping.

"Where am I?" she demanded, and she remembered that last night she had an exceptionally vivid dream, talking about her feelings and a painful past to someone she never met before. _I should've asked where he came from_, she thought_._

_This Kaworu Nagisa guy… He's dressed like Shinji, but… I never met such a really nice guy, telling me, yes, to live. Strangely, I even managed to smell him… like he smells like, uh, incense wood just like the priests use in Shinto temples around here._

Raising her arms, Asuka glanced at her wrists, covered in gauze and bandages. _Stupid me, what a dumb mistake I did…_ _He's right. I should make today the Day One of my life, and I want to get out of here, _she vowed_. I want to try again, and I must come to terms with myself._

_I want to kick some ass again!_

Now Asuka was quickly aware of the IV needle on her right arm and electrodes all over her chest. She grimaced in disgust, as they wired her completely.

_Ah, screw all of this junk! _

Without hesitation she tore them off, wincing in pain as she pulled out the IV needle. Noting that her gown was wide open, white panties and her bare chest exposed, she struggled to fasten each button as well. She hoped to steal a pair of janitor's coveralls or surgical green pants and try wearing them while on the way out; no way someone's gonna take a peek at her ass even in her seemingly decrepit state.

Asuka willed herself to get her feet going, first trying to move her toes and feet, testing to see if they were still okay. She then flexed every one of her legs, and her knees were adequate, hopefully not completely numbed by the long confinement. _Funny, I'm like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill,_ she mused, _getting out of coma._

She tried to get up into a sitting position, but it was more like trying to lift a sack of rice until her feet were now hanging from the edge of the bed. She lowered one foot to the floor, and then the other, thinking she could stand on her own. _Here goes nothing._

But as soon as she stood up, letting free of the bed, Asuka unexpectedly crumpled to the floor, the pain of the impact making her teeth grit harder. She cursed almost silently in three languages, comprehending that her legs were almost numb from the long hours of being stuck in bed.

_Shit, I'll fight anyway, _she told herself.

She'll have to be content with crawling her way out. Slowly she was inching forward to the door, every centimeter more like a meter, until she took hold of the door frame. Asuka will have to reach the door knob and open it.

Like a cat clawing its way up a wall, Asuka exerted every amount of her strength to reach the knob, and now her right hand took hold of it and twisted it open. She was rewarded with a click of the lock and the door slowly swung out.

Asuka poked her head out into the corridor, trying to see if there was any other human traffic. So far there was nobody except for her, silent except for the distant call of the PA system. _The nurse's probably busy at her station, and no guards, too,_ she thought with relief, and began crawling her agonizing way to the elevators.

_Escape this white hell. Make a break for it, Asuka._

As she passed by Room 300, Asuka noticed that the door was ajar, and curious about its occupant, she peeked in and was surprised to see who was inside. The occupant was sitting upright on her bed, staring back at her with red eyes, startled by her unexpected appearance.

"Wondergirl," Asuka mumbled in bewilderment. "Why are you here?"

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** Finally, she's back.

To those Asuka fans out there, this is what you were waiting for so long, and I have finally delivered. This is the first installment of what I think could be a three- to five-chapter Asuka story arc.

As this is probably one of the most difficult chapters to deal with so far in _Light and Water Season Two_, it took several nights trying to write and edit this, but six years before, the original version and the entire plot was much wildly different. However, back then I felt it was all too rushed, too forced. So I decided that on the rewrite the flow should be gradual, and with each chapter I have to triumph over every character obstacle I encounter, one roadblock at a time. As usual I make sure the dialogue has as much sense as the description.

I suppose that with this chapter, and at the same time I'm grappling with my personal issues, through my reinterpretation of Kaworu as he was talking to Asuka, I have to follow my own advice about life and how I could overcome my difficulties. I can't allow any problems try to discourage me from writing, as I came to realize that everytime I write a chapter, I make a commitment to myself to live on and fight.

As I will not give up writing _Light and Water _until the last chapter, I will also never surrender in life. Hope springs eternal, as a famous man once said.

So I'm dedicating this chapter to two of my online friends whose mother had recently passed away last weekend.

Finally, FYI, Takako Chigusa is one of the more memorable characters in Koushun Takami's novel _Battle Royale_, which in the later film adaptation was played by actress/model Chiaki Kuriyama (who, apart from being a total video-game junkie, is also said to be an avid Eva fan, as evidenced from the inside of her crib).

To my readers, thank you and good evening… and as Megumi Hayashibara had once written, _"The things you see aren't everything."_


	15. Hangover

It was almost eight in the morning when her two-year-old Sony-Ericsson clamshell cellphone shattered the calm.

Misato woke up to this trilling with a grunt of displeasure. Once she opened her eyes, the woman found herself lying on her futon, and she could smell the faint stench of vomit – her own. The sun was now over the horizon, and the beam streaming through her bedroom windows. She then faintly remembered about Shinji leading her to the toilet last night, where they puked together after using up what seemed to be two six-packs of Yebisu while talking about almost everything.

_Damn fucking headache_, she cursed inwardly, rubbing her head's temples. The sour vomit had also left a searing pain in her throat. _Feels like we went overboard... unbelievable._

Now she heard what sounded like footfalls outside. Must be Shinji; poor kid was now up, hobbling along the hallway to the bathroom to splash his face, examine himself in the mirror the head-throbbing results of his first alcoholic debauchery, perhaps to congratulate himself for discovering the other side of age twenty early in teenage life, in his miasma of vomit hovering in the air, and hopefully sober enough to make Cup Noodles and the strongest brew of coffee for both of them.

But still Misato must answer the phone right now.

"Where the hell is that thing?" she groaned, while pawing her hand around, looking for the vibrating phone until it was in her hands. Misato looked at the displayed caller ID and she realized it was Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki.

_Oh, shit, _Misato cursed again.

She promptly pried open the phone and answered, "Uh, good morning, sir."

"Good morning, Major," Fuyutsuki greeted, "Given your own habits, I'm not surprised about you waking up very late. Today, you have a special job to do."

"Sorry about that, sir," Misato apologized. "What is it?"

"You're to escort Miss Langley out of here this afternoon, but after she finishes the discharge procedures."

With one shoulder Misato pinched the phone to her ear as she stood up, clearing the cobwebs from her eyes. "You mean…" she trailed.

"About a couple of hours ago, Doctor Odani pulled the medications out of Miss Langley. Yes, although the Commander approved our request last night, I'm afraid that this girl, once she lands on Frankfurt, she'll be an ordinary civilian. It'll be over for her."

Misato groaned. "I understand that, sir," she said.

"But first, get her belongings ready, the ones she can carry home. Clothes, papers and valuables are only needed. You'll be picked up by an agent in a car, so leave yours instead."

"Okay, sir," Misato agreed as she began preparing her uniform, laying them out on the futon along with a fresh set of underwear. "Can I bring Shinji along?"

There was a long pause as Fuyutsuki considered her suggestion, and then he answered, "You may, but as long as you keep an eye on both of them. You and I know that most of the time they're like a married couple… Quarreling, that is."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION_**  
LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2**_  
CHAPTER 15: HANGOVER  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 5/20/2010 21:35 a5/p5

* * *

On all her fours, Asuka found herself staring at Rei Ayanami, whose reading of a light novel was interrupted, and this prompted the Second Children to ask, "Wondergirl, why are you here?"

Rei was trying to find the right words, until she answered, "I was injured yesterday in a failed experiment."

"What experiment?" Asuka questioned, as she tried to stand up on her feet, propping herself against the door frame. _Damn it, I wish there was at least a wheelchair or crutches to stand up, _she thought. _All I want is to talk, and I need to know._

"I tried to be compatible with Unit One, but I failed," Rei said.

"Where's Shinji?" Asuka demanded, still struggling to be upright.

Rei shook her head. "I do not know. Perhaps he could be at home right now, but yesterday he visited me."

"But what about Misato–" Asuka said, but was cut off when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed her wrists from behind. She turned her head around to see that a burly Caucasian male nurse had his hands on her, and this prompted her to fight.

"Let GO OF ME!" Asuka yelled in English, trying to kick and punch the nurse. "Damn it, LEMME GO!"

However the nurse, an ex-US Army medic who had seen his share of wounded soldiers brought into a field hospital in Afghanistan, thinking they were still in one piece and tried to get off their beds, and he knew all the tactics his patients would try to resort when escaping. Asuka Langley Soryu was no different from the soldiers he dealt with, and given the height difference and her weakened state he thought she was still easy to handle.

But Asuka proved him wrong, as she was aiming for his nethers and solar plexus.

"Calm down!" the nurse answered back. "You're hitting my balls!"

At first, Rei watched helplessly as Asuka tried to break free, the nurse trying to pull the girl away, but after twenty seconds the First Children must do something.

"Stop," Rei intoned, but the struggling and the screaming continued. Another male nurse, Japanese this time, joined in the fray. This was enough to inflame Rei, as she could remember all too well about the Angel attack that nearly drove Asuka mad.

"STOP!" Rei finally uttered out in the strongest voice possible. Astonished by this uncharacteristic outburst, Asuka and the two nurses immediately froze.

"I'm sorry, we got orders," the first nurse said. "We have no intention to harm her."

Breathing heavily, Rei noted the nameplates and ranks on the nurses' white blouses. Wilson Derdrick, Staff Sergeant. Keiichi Ayanoshita, Corporal. Her red pupils bore into the nurses' eyes, expressing her total displeasure.

"We have to prepare Miss Langley for her checkup," Wilson explained to Rei, as the nurses' slackened their hold on Asuka. They were obliged instead to prop the girl on her feet, and they knew all too well that Rei Ayanami had the full backing of the Commander.

Asuka blinked. "What do you mean? What the hell's going on?" she insisted. "What's wrong with me coming out of my room, and you clowns tried to grab me?"

"Men, please try to be careful with her," a woman's voice commanded from behind.

At the same moment they all twisted their necks towards Doctor Natsumi Odani and Chief Nurse Takako Chigusa, who shot at the men with disapproving scowls, and then Natsumi turned her attention to Asuka. Both men gasped.

"Miss Langley," Odani said, "Earlier, we disconnected the IV lines supplying you with sedatives, so you managed to wake up. It's my duty to tell you this, but whether you like it or not, you're going home."

* * *

Somewhere near Tokyo-3 and in his service van, the killer made a scrambled call to his handler and reported, but added that since Asuka would be accompanied by armed escort, he called up some extra friends from his list of contacts to help him out, and the killer would later plan and supervise the attack.

"Is it necessary?" the handler demanded, sounding almost agitated. "You could just take her out with a sniper rifle, and if she changes her mind and comes back to pilot again..."

"I don't want to have this left undone," the killer answered, after pausing to put down his coffee cup onto a holder on the dashboard. "I want to make them take notice that NERV's number would be up soon, but I also want to see how they react, as I see this convoy as a mere pretext for a trap. Those men will keep a distance from me and my quarry; there's no way they'll ever know who gave the order to shoot, as they're expendable fanatics who will not talk. Either way, no one should be left alive."

The killer sighed in near resignation.

"If you're worried about the added expenses, it's not a problem. I know these men," he added. "They're worth every dollar, and take my word for it."

The handler coughed. "Then do it as soon as possible. I want no stone left unturned. Give them hell."

* * *

At Misato's instructions and despite the mild aftereffects of his very first hangover (even after showering, the strongest coffee and aspirin possible, five minutes of brushing, and a good change of clothes), Shinji Ikari was now packing most of Asuka's clothes and belongings into a pair of gym bags. After her towel and a few pair of jeans and shirts went into one of the bags, Shinji now held aloft the yellow sundress on his hands.

He remembered her wearing it on the day they first met on the aircraft carrier. In his mind's eye, amidst fighter planes being catapulted and taking off in the background, Asuka then stood proud on the flight deck, with a determined face telling him she was ready to take on the world with Unit-02.

Oh, Asuka looked down on him, as though he was a commoner coming face-to-face with a medieval potentate with the billowing skirt of her sundress threatening to expose her thighs and underwear (screaming SEX in flashing neon lights).

When the Angel made an assault against the naval fleet, he tried to make his best impression possible as they dived in and fought the Angel underwater, even as he wore her spare plugsuit. How they managed to fish the damned thing out of the water and onto the flight deck, tried to kill that sea monster, but in the end it only took a pair of ancient battleships to destroy the Angel.

Since then Shinji found himself in constant conflict with Asuka, even as the situation they were into stuck them together out of necessity, and they had to come into the fight side-to-side.

Funny, Toji once called them the 'married couple', and even though both of them tried to deny it, the label was firmly stuck on them as they quarreled. He could remember trying to kiss her once, and then tried again at Asuka's urging, but now Shinji wondered how he could talk to her, as she was awake at this moment.

The bad news for her is that she's going home, never to return, and never to pilot again. He tried to imagine how her new life would be like after she spent much of her lifetime to become the chosen pilot of Unit-02, only she couldn't do anymore in the end. Furthermore, after all of her suffering, how she could accept the fact that Kaworu was now the new pilot of her Eva?

The thought made Shinji groan as he placed the sundress into the bag. He hoped she wouldn't deck Kaworu with a straight punch.

* * *

In curiosity and as part of his post-breakfast morning walk, Kaworu Nagisa ventured out from NERV HQ to visit a garden hidden behind the pine trees that dotted the Geofront's landscape. He once saw a glimpse of this garden on his way up to the ruins of Tokyo-3, and now as he entered through its gate for the first time, right before his eyes there were beds of colorful flowers, manicured lawns, shaped hedges, water fountains, and in the middle of all of this lush greenery was a gazebo, flanked by a pair of marble columns and surrounded by palms.

"I didn't know this place existed," Kaworu whispered in awe, as he walked around. "Beautiful."

Still, there was a reason for this garden to exist: like city parks it clearly served to provide a warm and vibrant contrast to the stark, cold and sterile science that occurred beneath the ground. Kaworu also guessed that given the stressful nature of scientific work, anyone can take a break and come here to literally smell the flowers.

Out of several flowers present in full bloom, one bed of roses interested him with their blazing pure whiteness, and he walked up and knelt down to pick several, careful not to be pricked by the thorns. He intended this bouquet to be given to Rei as a gift.

_Maybe she would like these,_ he thought, gazing at the roses in his grasp as he stood up.

* * *

In Doctor Odani's office, after the reluctant nurses placed Asuka onto the examination table and then left, Natsumi said, "You still have some of the sedatives in your system, which you'll have to wait for a least a few hours more before their effects dissipate."

Asuka nodded quietly. "What then?" she asked as Natsumi went through the motions of checking her pulse and respiration with a stethoscope on several places of the girl's chest.

"By that time, you'll be getting your release papers approved before you're on your way."

"I see," Asuka said resignedly. "Looks like I'm done in here, isn't it?"

Natsumi set her stethoscope aside and scribbled her findings on a clipboard. "I can't be the judge of that," she replied, now taking out a penlight from her chest pocket, flicking it on. "However, I believe that there's more to life than a single ruling passion. Okay, can you leave your eyes open so that I can see them?"

Asuka sat still as Natsumi played the light beam over her blue pupils.

"You're a bit dazed after several days in the bed," Natsumi spoke, putting back the penlight. "Try to do some eye exercises for a couple of minutes, and then just focus on that poster right there. Read the letters one by one with one open eye and the other covered, and then repeat with the opposite eye," she added, pointing out at the eye chart a few meters away.

As instructed, Asuka began reading out the letters on the chart, going far enough to the midway point, before repeating the same process with the other eye. From this, Natsumi wrote down Asuka's overall visual condition, and nodded approvingly.

"Not bad, considering you're just out of the bed," she remarked.

"Thanks," Asuka said.

In the next thirty minutes Asuka compliantly went through her full examination, including a flex test, a blood sample, an ear examination, mouth check, and so on. The girl never said a word throughout the process, as she stoically knew that her days here were over; the prospects of riding Unit-02 again were becoming remote to her as the time passed, to be replaced by growing thoughts of life outside this world.

She would soon wake up to mornings not worrying about the next mission, waiting for a passing Angel to slay, nor constantly doubting her sync ratio. She would be _normal_.

* * *

With much of Asuka's luggage on a flatbed cart, and sober with enough caffeine, calories and aspirin in their systems, Misato and Shinji stood at the parking lot, waiting for the agent to arrive, when they saw the car coming in, made a sharp turn and parked to a full stop. Misato recognized it as a sleek Audi S4 model sedan, possessing full-performance aftermarket options, gloss black paint, and well-armored. As this was a quick VIP machine for NERV top brass, including Commander Ikari, Misato believed that this particular car included some serious just-in-case firepower hidden beneath.

Misato also recognized the driver as he stepped out into the morning sun: Captain Tsutomo Kanzaki, the Section Two guy dressed in a three-piece suit. He walked around the Audi, stood before Misato and saluted smartly.

"Good morning, ma'am," Kanzaki greeted.

"Good morning," Misato answered, returning the agent's salute. With unspoken agreement, Misato, Shinji and Tsutomo began loading their parcels into the trunk, and once done, they boarded the Audi and sped out of the parking lot.

"Why use this one?" Misato asked Tsutomo, referring to the car. In the backseat and with the seatbelt on, Shinji was in his usual quiet self with the SDAT earphones plugged.

"Knowing what happened before, the Sub-Commander and my boss aren't going to take any chances," he replied. "By the way, once we have her with us, as planned we'll be joined by a few others in two Pajeros and two Humvees, and some air support."

"I see. Why we need so many escorts with the fact that we're only accompanying a girl?"

"This time," Tsutomo answered, "my boss must be having some sort of a sixth sense, thinking there could be some trouble coming up, after he got too much flack over his handling of the search operations for that Langley girl, some intel screw-ups, the Bakelite sabotage yesterday, and so on. He doesn't want to mess his retirement plans with yet another SNAFU, which means today he has security beefed up even with this supposed ferry job."

Instinctively, Misato reached into the folds of her uniform, and beneath it felt the reassuring heft of her HK USP service pistol nestled in her Galco Miami Classic harness. Tsutomo noticed her checking the gun and said, "No problem about us packing iron, ma'am, should we get in trouble. I'm carrying a Glock, and on the backseat there's a pair of UMP45s and spare mags, and vests." He meant there were two submachine guns, ammo and bullet-proof vests, which for Misato were better than nothing.

"Hmmm, seems that they've been spared from the budget chopping block," Misato commented. She could see that they were now approaching a gate leading to a tunnel for the linear car train station.

"Those guns are only for special needs like this car," Tsutomo said, "but we're doing everything we could after the problem with the security budget, and so my boss said that we had to improvise, train hard, or make do with anything we have in the inventory. He's also worried that anything less could be more than just having the danger of Al-Qaeda or the International Resistance dropping in with a Christmas gift. Most people look upon NERV as a military organization, and how could you call it a military organization if it doesn't have any _guns?_"

Stopping by the guardhouse at the gate, Tsutomo lowered the window and showed his ID to the guard, who nodded back and lowered the crash barrier, before the Audi rolled away into the tunnel.

"That has changed, however," Tsutomo continued. "Two weeks ago my boss pleaded to Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki about purchasing some equipment on that tight budget, and promised that he could find a ready and legit supplier on the cheap. However, for good reason we didn't let the Commander in the scheme."

"How did you know?" Misato asked, as the car parked into its place on the linear train. "I thought there's almost no budget for security."

"No, the Sub-Commander did otherwise with the budget surplus by taking advantage of the so-called 'intelligence fund', using some accounting loopholes, and ordering for us the equipment ASAP," Tsutomo said as he pulled up the hand brake. "A week later I was on the purchasing team, finding dealers in America. We were lucky that I had old friends working in the defense industry, and we managed to clinch a deal with the lowest bidders. More guns and gear for us, except that they're all surplus, because the Pentagon's switching its troops over to new equipment. Well, later on we're due to get a shipment of that from America, to be picked up at Atsugi and delivered by rail. It's more secure there than at the airport near here." Atsugi was home to a sizable US naval air station, currently hosting squadrons of UN Emergency Forces aircraft.

They now felt the jolt as the tire locks engaged to hold the Audi in place, and the linear train began moving downward. Tsutomo managed a small sigh.

"So tomorrow we'll be carrying more bang for the buck, and that's all," he said. "'Fifty percent of something's better than a hundred percent of nothing', as I quote that Chinese guy from that drift race movie. I tell you, ma'am, no soldier here worth his salt would be standing around wearing only standard-issue dress khakis and a peashooter once the shit hits the fan."

* * *

Asuka, in a wheelchair this time, was about to be returned back to her room when she requested to Takako Chigusa, who was pushing her from behind, that she be brought to Rei. The young nurse nodded and they went into Rei's room.

Once Takako left them alone, the blue-haired girl set aside the book she was reading and asked, "What is it, Pilot Soryu?"

"Just wanted to have a little chat," Asuka said. "Call me Asuka instead. I feel better that way, and besides I'm a _civilian_ today, not an Evangelion pilot."

Inwardly, Rei noted the unusual change in Asuka's behavior, especially the absence of her usual standoffish behavior and disdain, now replaced by apathy and sobriety. "I see," she answered, nodding. "What do you wish to talk about?"

"Well, I have a thought today, like, uh, having a change of heart about you because I had this dream where I met this guy and I talked to him. Said everything about me and you, and told me that I have to live."

Asuka glanced briefly at her bandaged wrists, before she returned her attention to Rei.

"I'm sorry for everything I did against you," she apologized.

"Why?" Rei asked.

"Instead of thanking you for saving me, I was angry. In the elevator I also foolishly thought you were wrong about opening my heart to Eva that I slapped you."

Rei remembered that elevator spat between them, and Asuka calling her Eva a doll.

"Now you're right," Asuka said, shaking her head, "but it's too late. I'd rather do something else than waste too much of my time here. I spent nearly a lifetime after being selected, trained for this, ate, drank, slept and lived to become a pilot… However, today, I'm going home, and maybe there I'll try to become normal and forget that I was once here. Go back to school, be more open and find new friends, land a job..."

Rei said nothing, as Asuka sighed wearily.

"I'm useless here," Asuka despaired, "as I can't move that Eva anymore, and I'm tired."

"Though I am still alive, I am no different from you, as I have also lost my purpose."

The redhead was wide-eyed. "What?"

"Unit Zero is gone, so I tried to do my best to be as useful as possible, but after the compatibility test with Unit One, it has become clear that I am no longer able to pilot."

"But why you're still here, and for what?" Asuka asked, scratching her head.

"The Commander wants me alive, and yet he has never told me why. He has yet to visit me here."

"Funny, you're jobless just like me. That leaves out Invincible Shinji."

"You are mistaken," Rei said. "There is already another who has replaced you. He is now the pilot of Unit Two."

Bowled over, Asuka asked, "Who's piloting it this time?"

Rei didn't answer, but instead stared far at the direction of the door. Noticing this, Asuka turned her wheelchair around to find Kaworu Nagisa standing at the doorway with a fresh bouquet of white roses. The young man smiled weakly.

"Good morning, Rei," he greeted, "and I'm pleased to see you again, Asuka."

* * *

This morning and on her way down to the Stockade, Maya Ibuki looked glum after yesterday's testing SNAFU, causing her much distress thereafter and forcing her to take leave early, and several days before that, her boss Ritsuko Akagi was sent to jail for an embezzlement charge she didn't believe in. The only consolation for her so far was having Doctor Natsumi Odani as her new boss, and fortunately Odani was kind enough to explain her reasons and was willing to work with her.

About two days ago, Odani told her about the unusual data coming from Kaworu Nagisa after they put him through a compatibility test with Unit-02, and gave the data to her for analysis. In those two days of combing through the figures, Maya found out that Kaworu can adjust his sync rate to any level with little difficulty and greater stability.

Today, Maya received a memo from the top, in which she was now allowed to visit Doctor Akagi on matters regarding the MAGI and the Evas. But the MAGI supercomputers were doing fine as usual, and in its operational history the microbial Angel attack was the sole serious intrusion against the system.

It was only the Evas, especially Unit-01, that were still difficult and unpredictable to work with. Before yesterday's compatibility test, she wanted to voice her misgivings about the possibility of that Eva rejecting Rei, but Commander Ikari was a difficult, fearsome person to placate, like Captain Ahab trying to hunt down that mythical white whale. Only later after debriefing did Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki told her that he even tried to stop him.

All told and after a string of mishaps, Maya was deeply concerned that the Commander may be leading them all to uncertainty.

In the Stockade office, which all visitors had to pass through after their credentials were established, Maya showed her ID card to the seated sentry and explained about the purpose of her visit.

"I'm here to see Doctor Akagi," she said, showing the printout of the memo, complete with Commander Ikari's signature and authentication barcode. "I just wanted to report to her about the current status of the MAGI," she added, laying a sheaf of reports onto the sentry's desk.

The sentry said nothing, as he gave her a clipboard, where she wrote the details of her visit, before handing it back to the man. The sentry then gestured to her to pass through a metal detector, followed him down into the holding cells, clearing two steel doors with a keycard, before he tapped on the door of Ritsuko's cell and said, "Doctor, you have a visitor today."

"Who?" Ritsuko asked.

"It's Lieutenant Ibuki," he answered.

Ritsuko gave out a sigh of relief. "Okay, thanks. Just let her in."

The sentry unlocked the cell door with his passcode on the keypad, then swiped with another keycard, and swung it open. Maya entered, and thanked the sentry, but warned her in return, "You got only half an hour in there. Call me when you're finished."

In the fluorescent light Maya was astonished at the changes in her boss' appearance: Ritsuko looked gaunt, her once dyed-blonde hair faded into its original chestnut brown, and she was wearing baggy prisoner's coveralls. She was sitting on her cot, and facing her was an empty folding chair. Also on the cot were several paperbacks; a dog-eared copy of _Contact_ was laid open, halfway through reading Ellie Arroway's odyssey.

"Hi," Ritsuko said with a small smile as she watched her protégé sit down. "I'm sorry if I look like this crappy."

"It's okay, ma'am," Maya answered. "Are you eating well?"

"Don't worry about me. I have three square meals a day, plus a shower. You have anything new?"

"I have these," Maya said, showing the progress reports before placing them onto the cot. Ritsuko took one of them off the top and read, skimming through the printouts before reaching for another folder. The process continued until she opened a folder concerning the Fifth Children.

"That's the new pilot of Unit Two," Maya helpfully said.

"Strange," Ritsuko remarked, squinting twice to make sure her eyes didn't fool her. "When did he arrive?" she asked, but she gestured to Maya with an index finger across her lips to keep their voices down.

"About three days ago. He's from Germany," Maya said almost quietly.

Ritsuko frowned. "Who sent him here?"

"I don't know, except he's Asuka's replacement. Maybe only the Commander knows."

"Must be the Committee," Ritsuko said. "Seems they're helping us out near the end, but the timing's too right, and too convenient."

"Ma'am, what do you mean?" Maya asked.

Ritsuko shrugged. "Unit Zero is dead, and the First Children is nothing but a replacement. And then you have the Second Children literally out of action after she nearly got her brains fried. This leaves the Third, Shinji, and Unit One to remain. And suddenly we have this newcomer with an ostensibly wonderful skill set. Anyway, what happened yesterday? There seemed to be a ruckus up there."

"The Commander tried to have Rei accomplish a compatibility test with Unit One," Maya said, and explained to Ritsuko about yesterday's failed test.

"That hard-headed sonofabitch," Ritsuko muttered at the end of Maya's narrative. "Mind if I could smoke?" she asked, pulling out a pack of Mild Seven cigarettes and a disposable lighter. Maya nodded; the young woman knew that cigarettes, despite being noxious, were as necessary to Ritsuko as to a baby needing a pacifier.

Ritsuko lit up one stick and puffed. Her lips blew out a stream of spent tobacco before she said, "I suppose he's too eager to restart the Dummy Plug project. And why not rebuild the damned thing, especially when you have a new boy with an exceptional sync rate, and use his data in the rebuild?"

"It's not going to happen," Maya answered. "From what I heard, the Commander has shut down the project. It wasn't worth risking for because it made too much trouble."

"Good riddance," Ritsuko said sourly, her fingers tapping the ashes away from the burning stick. "Anyway, how Odani is treating you?"

Maya smiled. "She's okay, we're doing fine whenever she would check on me but I can manage myself even if you're stuck in here. As far as she's concerned, the Commander gave her a higher security clearance in order to access medical records, and maybe some of your files."

Ritsuko blinked. "What?"

But Maya shook her head. "Doctor Odani told me not to worry; all she needed was the necessary data, and judging from the login records she never touched any of your encrypted files. Her main concern is more on the medical than yours."

The older scientist sighed in relief. "What files she used, anyway?"

Maya explained about Odani's use of Rei's MRI/PET scan files yesterday while checking the girl's previous neurological condition; told her it was for comparison checks on the hippocampus section because of an anomaly caused by Unit-01 while she went haywire during the failed test.

"Neither Doctor Odani nor I know what sort of information that Unit One forced into Rei's mind, but she said that there was nothing wrong with her, top to bottom, barring a concussion."

"I see," Ritsuko said. "She looks real healthy, sure enough to be out by the day's end."

Maya shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure about this but today Rei has to attend a debriefing, along with that Nagisa boy, just to know what happened. And oh, if you wanted to know, Asuka will be going back to Germany. It's a general medical discharge with the Commander's signature on the release papers."

Ritsuko shook her head, guessing well that Asuka's time was up. "I wish her the best," she commented. "She did everything she could to become what she wanted to be."

* * *

While Fallout Boy on his SDAT blared into his ears, Shinji recalled Asuka's kiss.

No, really, her kiss was forever branded into his brain, with all five senses able to record that moment; he could still remember the chocolate flavor and smell of her mouth, eyes widened in shock and pleasure, the pop music from the radio, and the softness of her lips.

It was a rare prize that can only be obtained by fortunate circumstances.

Boys in his school desired her, the sexiest bomb ever to walk before their gaze, but whether for better or for worse, Shinji was the only one to kiss Asuka.

_Amazing to be that lucky_, Shinji thought as he watched the bucolic scenery whiz by while the linear train was descending to the Headquarters station below. He still felt sleepy from his hangover, the plush rear seat and the air-conditioning of the car made it all too comfortable to doze in, but the music piped into his ears and thoughts of her kept him awake.

He still wondered what to say to Asuka. That alone was an agonizing problem, as he was looking for a good reason to speak his mind out, and questions he wanted to ask.

The young man breathed in and out, making up his mind, practicing the lines he would say to her. He imagined himself facing her, not sure of what mood she would be in:

_Hi, Asuka. I'm glad you're back.  
Asuka… Are you okay? I wish you're not angry with me this time. Please forgive me.  
Hello, Asuka. I came here today because you woke up.  
Asuka, I have come here in peace._

Shinji was running out of ideas, so he pulled out the earphones and asked Misato, who was on the front seat, in mid-conversation with Kanzaki. "I'm not sure what to say to her," he said, "so I was wondering what Asuka's feelings at the moment would be."

Misato answered, "I have the same thoughts, too. Just greet her a good morning as if we're back home and she wakes up and asks you to make her some breakfast."

"Ah, okay," Shinji agreed, before he posed to himself this one question: does he truly love Asuka? The young man sighed. _I'm not sure._

* * *

Asuka finally came to gaze at the new pilot of her Eva Unit-02: gray hair springing from his head in all directions, slim, pale complexion, his seemingly hypnotic red pupils, and an amiable, confident personality. She was speechless.

As he placed the fresh white roses carefully in a vase on a bedside table, Kaworu was an epitome of perfection, even if he really smelled of soap instead of fragrant wood in Asuka's first encounter with him. In another dimension, she thought, Kaworu would have been a suave pop star straight out of Johnny's talent stable, adored by millions of screaming fangirls as he sang onstage, camera strobes flashing all around him.

But he was one of the Children, trained to ride the Evas and fight, pummeling their gargantuan opponents into pulp, and yet they were never intended to be pop stars – just the opposite as NERV strictly prohibited any press coverage on the Children, and instead the PR office saying the lie to the media that Evas are "robots" built to stop the post-apocalyptic invaders in their tracks.

"So… You _are_ Kaworu Nagisa," Asuka mumbled, her eyes wide in disbelief.

Kaworu bowed. "Yes, I'm sorry if we met _again _in this way, but I'm glad you're almost back onto your feet."

Asuka gave him a little smile. "Thank you," she said. "When did you come here?"

"Just a few days ago," Kaworu replied. "To cut the story short, I was trained for this duty, and then assigned to your Eva as the Fifth Children."

Asuka wasn't really sure whether she could say openly that she met Kaworu in her dreams, but first things first, she was real hungry to know what went on while in coma.

"How's Unit Two?" she queried as if Kaworu borrowed her Ferrari for two weeks of hard driving.

"I have no problem handling her since day one," Kaworu replied. "To be honest, she's really fine while you were asleep. There's barely a scratch on that Eva, even after I got into a tangle with Unit One and pulled Rei out of the wreckage."

The redhead scratched her head. "And what happened to Shinji's Eva?"

Kaworu shook his head. "She rejected Rei and went out of control," he answered, before the Fifth Children explained briefly to Asuka about the failed compatibility test which landed Rei onto the hospital bed.

"I'm sorry hearing about you going home," Kaworu said as he watched Rei quietly pick up her book and resume reading.

"It's okay, I regret nothing," Asuka answered. "I guess my job's done here, anyway. Gotta settle back to a normal life instead of worrying so much, and… "

All of them now heard Asuka's stomach churning. Kaworu grinned and said, "I suppose we'll order some breakfast for you."

"Yeah, thanks," Asuka replied. "Frankly, I'm so damned hungry, but I'll eat in my room."

* * *

Kozo Fuyutsuki was in his office, behind the desk with a mug of coffee in hand, listening to music as he waited. His little stereo component was playing much of the Beatles, a taste he acquired while back in his bad old days as an unlicensed doctor on Toyohashi's boat and squatter city; when not working on a patient's case of bronchitis or a wound caused by a stray fish hook, he played cheap bootlegs of classic rock he bought from the floating market near the quay. Fuyutsuki enjoyed his music as a way to ease his intellectual difficulties.

Now as he took a sip, one song had a particularly appropriate title—_Come Together_—for the situation of the moment, because the Children seemed to be rebounding back to normal, one by one, from almost close to defeat: Shinji snapped out of his depression, Rei remembering again, and today, Asuka waking up from an artificial coma.

On his desk, this morning's copy of the popular broadsheet _Yomiuri Daily News_ carried the headline: "Diet Approves SSDF Redeployment and Defense Budget Increase". The paper also quoted one of the parliamentary leaders and the defense minister as saying that the worsening Angel situation in Japan and potential threats from belligerent neighbors has spurred the immediate approval of new military policies to ensure national security, despite howls of protest from left-leaning groups and politicians. According to the paper, military forces have also been repositioned around the Hakone rim, with at least four heavy divisions outside the valley.

_Coming together, and what a sense of timing,_ he contemplated.

Fuyutsuki wondered if it was a coincidence that Kaworu's arrival and intervention sparked a change in here, especially to the other Children's plight, and now they were coming together.

He glanced at the picture on his desk, which was one of the few surviving mementoes when he thought man has come to a new age: it showed him with Gendo and Yui, all in lab coats, the three of them with a mission to change the world.

Everything seems to be coming together, and who knows what comes next? Honestly Fuyutsuki wasn't sure how things would eventually end down here, and that uncertainty left him doubting more often than being confident of expecting peace.

Fuyutsuki picked up the phone and dialed Misato's cellphone. He waited until the woman officer was on the line.

"It's me, sir," she answered. "I'm on my way."

"I see. Tell Agent Kanzaki to go meet Director Hamamoto for last minute instructions. Anyway, what happened to the two of you last night? You and Shinji, I mean."

There was a long pause before Misato replied. "We had a little bonding."

"Okay, Major, it's perfectly understandable."

"Thanks, sir. I'll see you later."

As Fuyutsuki put the phone back onto its cradle, he wondered what Gendo was doing today and where he was, after he last saw him back at the man's office yesterday. Perhaps he was spending his time in private, probably pondering his actions in the last few days, not wanting to be disturbed.

* * *

Rei was left to Doctor Odani as she called her to come for the final physical examination. Meanwhile, back in Asuka's room, as the redhead waited for her breakfast, Kaworu thought of the Second Children's new behavior, a transformation of personality; she was unlike her past persona, that of the loud, angry, haughty Asuka, out to fight to victory. Today she sounded restrained, accepting her inevitable fate to leave this place altogether with a clean conscience. He was also surprised that she wasn't hostile to the idea of him being Unit-02's new handler.

Now Nurse Chigusa came in walking, pushing a food cart up front. She then helped Asuka get off her wheelchair and back to bed, then set up the girl's breakfast of ramen (the real deal, not the instant variety), two rolls and orange juice onto the meal table. After thanking the nurse, Asuka promptly went eating her first solid meal, slurping the noodles with gusto.

"So tell me, why did you want to help me?" Asuka asked, referring to her all-too-real dream last night.

"I kind of pitied you when I saw you lying on the bed. Maybe sleeping but inside you felt as if you were drowning. I didn't want to stand around and watch the rest of you wallow in hopelessness."

"Thanks," the redhead sighed. "I was selfish. I sank too low that I thought it best to lie down and die after all the misery I had," she said, "until you came along and told me I have to let go. Now that you're here, I just wanted to have someone to talk to, and you're the first one since Hikari."

Kaworu nodded.

"And since you obviously know everything about me, I don't think I'll have anything else to hide."

"So this time it's just between you and me," he said.

The girl stopped eating, took a breath and looked at Kaworu.

"I believed myself I was right about everything," Asuka said. "I thought I could fill that emptiness in me and deny the past by being superior to everyone else. I wanted to escape, go past Mom's death, yet as I tried I felt unsatisfied, so I made myself larger than anyone else, say that I have the biggest brain in the neighborhood. By building a façade of my personality, I thought I was much important, the big shot."

"And now…?"

"What's the point of busting my ass for all of this," Asuka lamented, gesturing with her arms sweeping around, "What's the use of being so self-important, when I realize that I nearly killed myself over something so trivial, shallow and worrisome? Well, it makes sense now to leave. Leave? Yes… and live? Yes!"

"But what about your Eva? I'll let you make another chance."

"You told me to try again, but I can't… It's not worth it!"

Feeling the weight of the world upon her, the redhead cradled her face upon open palms, and then stroked them up to the back of her head to straighten her hair, before ending it with a sigh. Kaworu approached her close enough to look into her eyes.

"Kaworu?" Asuka spoke in almost a whisper.

"Yes?"

"Can I cry? I can't hold them back... I've been having a bad time for too long…" This time her eyes were already welling up with tears, and she also felt a lump in her throat.

The young man nodded. "Sure, it's okay."

The next thing was Asuka sobbing onto Kaworu's chest, as he let his hand comfort the girl's back to reassure her.

* * *

After the final physical examination, Doctor Odani told Rei that she must get ready for her upcoming debrief, and so right now the First Children was taking a shower. Her usual school uniform was outside the shower room, waiting for the girl to wear them.

As she soaped her body, Rei found it uncharacteristic for Asuka to come into her room sounding more normal than hostile, but otherwise she thought it to be a direct result of the inevitable discharge, that she was trying to mend her bridges after burning them down.

Whatever the reasons, and despite Rei's mixed feelings within, Asuka was now talking, trying to become more open rather than being confrontational and divisive.

On the other hand, she wondered what the Commander was doing right now. Maybe he was still thinking what to do, now that he terminated the Dummy Plug project permanently. Or maybe he was planning on what more to do with her.

The last thought sent shivers coming down on Rei's spine. That man was, despite his setbacks, still in firm control of her fate. Ever since she was rescued, however, it seemed that the Commander has shut himself out, not trying to contact her or whatsoever, not even coming here out of genuine concern.

With Rei able to access the unlocked past of her previous incarnation, she could recall that the Commander was almost always with her, and every time they were together he would study her as she floated in the LCL tank. As she did that she was trying to guess what was in his mind, and even then she didn't know much about him, let alone that he was acting as the father figure.

* * *

After she cried and then settled down, Asuka felt better, and now she resumed eating. The idea of letting go gave her a measure of a different kind of confidence.

"I noticed something about two of you," Asuka remarked as she attacked her buttered rolls between noodle slurps, pointing out Kaworu and Rei's overall physical appearances. "I find it strange but you two look almost alike."

"I take that as a compliment," Kaworu answered.

"Sure, and I'm guessing you're so close to Rei."

Kaworu shrugged. "Can't help it, but from the time we first met I was trying to help her pull away from her predicament, such as not being able to remember after her last mission."

Asuka was busy chewing, before saying, "What else?"

"Apart from that, I also tried to give Rei a bit of self-worth."

The redhead wondered if there was something romantic going on between Kaworu and Rei. This perked her up. "So, are you trying to open her… mind?"

"In a sense, yes, because at the time I met her she looked helpless. Well, yesterday we had a very long talk, especially about her problems."

Asuka grinned. "Now that's progress," she praised. "Tell me, when you two would be coming out for a date?"

"A date?" Kaworu questioned. "I admit I have no idea about it."

"Right," Asuka said, before she snickered. "Dear God, don't know what a date is? You go out with the other, enjoy yourselves at, for example, a theme park or while watching a movie or having dinner, just like in the movies."

Kaworu nodded. "I get the concept," he said. "When you go on a date, I believe, you're trying to get to know your opposite, a friend. That I think might be the case, as it doesn't look simple because I feel there's a lot more."

"To be candid, I went on a date," Asuka said, shrugging her shoulders before consuming another strand of noodles, "although my date wasn't right, as he was too stuffy and doesn't seem to be interested in girls, even if he was really footing the bill. Didn't matter – that med student was a genuine dweeb."

"I see. Perhaps if I could just find the time, maybe I'll learn how to do it and then try inviting Rei to a date."

Asuka was laughing, thinking Kaworu was making jokes about himself. "Good grief, are you from another planet?"

Kaworu shook his head, smiling. "No, but I haven't done dating in a very long time," he lied. Apparently for him she missed the irony.

"You may look a bit freaky, but at least you're the nicest and the most amusing guy I ever met. No kidding, as not all the boys back at school are just as nice as you."

"For a change, have you tried Shinji?" Kaworu suggested.

The redhead almost dropped her chopsticks. "What? Him?" she questioned.

"Yes. I gather that he's the only one real close to you, even if you don't seem to like him."

"Oh, funny, I wish he had a spine. That's a problem especially if—"

"You kissed him before," Kaworu said.

Like having a bomb dropped over her head, Asuka looked cross this time. "Good grief, he was so damned stiff! He couldn't do it right!" she complained. "Oh, no, I tried to get him interested in me, I let him kiss to test him out, but I don't know what's up with Shinji!"

Kaworu shook his head. "Then perhaps try to change your approach because Shinji feels intimidated. Loosen up, tone down, and then understand him. He'll appreciate that."

Now Asuka remembered something she warned to Shinji before. "The walls of Jericho," she spoke.

"Pardon me?"

The redhead sighed, setting aside the remains of her meal. "I should've torn those walls down instead. I sent him the wrong signals, I got it all wrong. I guess he didn't know about reverse psychology."

"I wished you made it simple enough for him to understand."

"Yeah."

There was a pause as Asuka silently sank into her thoughts, reflecting how her behavior somehow caused people to stay clear of her. First it was Kaji, and she tried to get close enough, her hormones buzzing like crazy, adoring him, and trying to make him seduce her, even as Kaji knew then that she was too young to understand, avoiding her amorous yet silly advances.

Sure, Kaji eventually bit the big one, but he was also right on the mark.

Then Shinji came into the picture, somehow despite his shortcomings, despite that their relationship was made out of necessity and duty, he tried to like her but Rei was the only other girl he truly conveyed his feelings and affections.

Because Rei was seemingly harmless and receptive, almost a mother figure in Shinji's eyes, and Rei was everything that Asuka could not be, so the redhead became jealous of them, deluding herself in the belief that they were trying to steal her thunder. Her arrogance and ambition triggered the downfall, a lowered sync rate, the collapse of her world and everything she believed in.

Now her reawakening came with a new meaning, and Kaworu told her to go for a second chance in life, but first she must let go of the burdens that caused her trouble in the first place. Furthermore, there are hard questions that were gnawing her to answer.

"Kaworu?" Asuka said.

"Yes?"

"Gimme some time to think and get ready for anything I would like to say before Shinji comes here. I guess it would be a very long talk between me and him."

Kaworu nodded, yet he smiled. "Sure, I understand," he answered. "Can I leave you for a while just to check on Rei?"

Asuka returned the smile with a wave of her hand. "Okay, Kaworu… Thanks again for your company."

"My pleasure," he said before walking out of the door.

Once she was alone, lying down, Asuka was planning everything she wanted to do today. Apart from a very serious conversation with Shinji, she would also make a phone call to Hikari, then lunch, maybe a talk with Misato, before giving Unit-02 one final look before departing. Her last day today, a swan song maybe, but what the hell, she must make the most of the opportunity to deal with loose ends until she boards the plane back to Germany.

Now some enigmas bugged Asuka: for all of his kindness, who is Kaworu Nagisa? What he's really doing here, and for what purpose? Where the hell he came from?

Suddenly she forgot to ask Kaworu how he managed to come into her dreams.

* * *

"I haven't seen Misato," Ritsuko said to Maya, this time the older woman nursing a Styrofoam cup of coffee and a freshly-lit cigarette. "How's she?"

Maya shook her head. "Oh, she had much more than she could handle, especially with the botched experiment. But she's trying to be all right, even after she lost Kaji."

Ritsuko looked up to the ceiling, wondering about the spy and who and what killed him. She could remember the old days, especially about Kaji's laid-back slacker attitude that ran counter to all formality, and his on-off relationship with Misato. Sometimes together maybe, but she couldn't be sure if Misato still really loved Kaji. She imagined thumbing the cat-themed gift he brought from Matsushiro months ago.

"I wonder what happened with the investigation on Fuyutsuki's kidnapping," she said.

"I heard it's still ongoing," Maya answered. "Why?"

"You better keep this in mind, but there's more to Kaji than what you think. I went to college with him and Misato, and I know him well. It's because of his job that he got killed… no, murdered is the right word."

"And what he actually does for a living?"

Ritsuko paused for a moment. "He's a spy, period," she said. "Someone murdered him because he held too many secrets, and that makes him very dangerous. I think he was sent in to rescue the Sub-Commander but that was a ruse, to draw him into a trap."

Suddenly the older woman slapped her hands down to hips. "Holy shit," she muttered.

"What's wrong?" Maya asked, looking perplexed

"Oh my… I fear that somehow and somewhere there's a mole here."

"A mole?"

"Here's how: I once used to read one of those spy books about some villain working on the inside, had dug far enough to copy secrets or fake them all, and maybe even fuck up operations, the flow of intelligence, and decision-making. That's not even fiction, because there's this guy named Kim Philby who supposedly worked for British intelligence but he was really working for the KGB, doing all this mole business until he was caught. Now we have the same problem here. No wonder why we're running into blunders, and no wonder why Kaji ate a bullet."

Maya now looked alarmed. "What can we do about it?"

Ritsuko's eyes narrowed. "Try asking Director Hamamoto as soon as possible to see if they can sniff out and catch the mole."

Maya knew that Director Shuya Hamamoto was the head of Section Two. "Okay," she said.

"If this mole has his way, then soon enough we'll be at the losing end of a mahjongg game," Ritsuko concluded. _And no matter how, I think Kaji needs a measure of justice. I don't like to know that he died in vain,_ she added.

* * *

After parking the Audi right on front, then leaving Misato and Shinji at NERV HQ's main atrium, on their way to the Infirmary, Tsutomo Kanzaki walked through a long covered passageway to visit his boss at the office, which was the Second Section Annex Building located behind the main HQ pyramid. This edifice had three aboveground levels and three more basement levels, and it even has its own huge garage for its pool of service vehicles. In this building all of NERV's security and intelligence needs are being serviced on a daily basis.

At the end of the passageway, he reached the guarded reception area in front of the building, the threshold of the Section Two's sanctum sanctorum, where his fellow colleagues were at work, in their cubicles with reams of paperwork, in the armory where they checked their weapons, watching everything in the surveillance room, or practicing at the shooting range, at the gym, or the so-called "house of horrors" used for close quarter combat training.

Tsutomo presented his ID card to the guard at the reception desk, who then took his fingerprint and pupil scans for identification, before signing the details of his visit on a logbook. The young agent then walked over to the lock where he swiped his passcard over the sensor and the doors opened for him leading to its main hall. From there he had to ride an elevator to the third floor, then once out he walked on the wide aisle dividing the huge room, passing the cubicles occupied by other agents. The aisle led directly to Hamamoto's glass-paneled office, where at the moment he could see the old man furiously laboring over his latest set of problems – laid in heaps of paper – on the teak-wood desk. Mounted on the bookshelf, just behind the old man was an old sheathed daikatana on its cradle.

A father of two, a driven man with generations of warriors in the bloodline, Shuya Hamamoto worked once as an intelligence officer within the Maritime Self-Defense Force until he retired early as lieutenant-commander, then NERV hired him to this lofty position, dutifully holding it for several years. This month, however, he was due to retire for good, to devote more time to his family in Kobe and for the sake of his declining health. Much to his chagrin, however, the latest series of NERV bungles worsened his mood and well-being.

Tsutomo knocked on the glass door, and his boss gestured him to come inside. Once he was standing in attention before his boss, both men saluted to each other and Hamamoto invited him to sit down.

"Still having trouble, sir?" Tsutomo asked.

"Hell, yes," Hamamoto answered, who looked pretty upset as both of them sat down. "Someone's having a field day fucking things up right here. I don't know who or what we're up against, but you and I know that lately there's a string of incidents that are making our jobs very difficult: the kidnapping of the Sub-Commander, the Kaji murder, then some intel fuck-up on the ground while we tried looking for the Second Children around this punch-bowl valley, and now this Bakelite sabotage which nearly caused Unit One to stomp its way out. We can't deny the fact that there's a mole, or a bunch of moles hiding here somewhere right now."

"I'm sure the counter-intel guys are working on it pronto," Tsutomo said.

Hamamoto sighed. "You bet I ordered them to do that, as I'm getting really sick of having these SNAFUs, because the pressure's on me to stop them. I even got a call from that prick of an iceman right from the top, demanding me to explain why there was a goddamn leak about yesterday's compatibility test, which was supposed to be top secret!"

Unfazed by his boss' pent-up anger and understanding his situation, Tsutomo nodded. Since NERV's founding, the Section Two guys gave Commander Ikari the secret nickname of Iceman because of his cold, harsh personality; they may be following orders but most of them wished the anal-retentive Commander should at least cut them some slack.

"All right, I guess you've brought Major Katsuragi down here," Hamamoto said, now his temper lowered to near zero.

"She's present to debrief the two Children, Ayanami and that newcomer Nagisa. Needed to know what happened yesterday. Afterwards, she'll be accompanying Miss Langley to the airport."

"I see. I wonder whether if she got over with Kaji's death, because sometimes before I seen them together here, and I'm sure they were once lovers. Now that Kaji had bought the farm, I bet she's expecting us to get that case solved or else, given her attitude, she could do something very drastic, like hunting down the moles herself because it's all personal."

"You mean vengeance."

"That's right," Hamamoto agreed. "Now, regarding the planned convoy, we've put up the other escorts ready in full gear and fuel. So far the recon team who checked the route said all clear and nothing out of the ordinary, but even then we need to keep our eyes peeled, because I sense that someone will go take a bite out of us right in the open."

"So, sir, that's why you decided not to use air transport for Miss Langley?"

Hamamoto nodded. "Our Cheyennes will be used only for air support while the convoy's in transit," he said, referring to the heavily-armed VTOL transport gunships in the NERV inventory. "They'll keep an eye above the convoy, and if it comes to worse, good for medevac should we draw some casualties, and I hope we'll see none. That girl's our bait to draw those damned moles and sleepers out of the woods, and once we see them with the guns, we bag those sons of bitches and if possible I want them caught alive before dinner. Then we find out who's their big daddy. Problem solved."

"What about the consignment?"

"The ruse is enough to draw their attention away from it, which is the second reason for this mission."

"I haven't told Katsuragi about the actual gameplan."

"Good. Always keep it that way, don't tell them unless the situation goes out of hand."

"Got that, sir," Tsutomo agreed. "By the way, can you allow Shinji Ikari to be with the convoy?"

The old man thought for it for a moment, before he nodded. "Sure, son, he's in because he's been with the girl long enough that, considering how long she was in the Infirmary, I think she'll need some added support."

"Thank you, sir. I'll make sure nothing will go wrong."

The old man stood up, causing Tsutomo to do the same, before they saluted each other. "Just remember that only fire back when fired upon," he advised, "and always have eyes on your six, son. Good luck on your way."

* * *

Shinji and Misato were standing at the hallway of the Infirmary when she told him, "Go to Asuka while I take care of the debriefing."

"Okay," he answered, but he looked anxious.

Misato smiled a bit. "You're a big boy now, so don't be afraid. Just be yourself, and put your best foot forward."

"What about you?"

"Don't worry, I'll come later. We still have lots of time here before we leave."

Shinji walked away, leaving Misato behind, and as he approached Asuka's room he was thinking whether she could still stand him, or how she could accept his appearance. He also wondered if the girl still has even a bit of concern or affection for him. He couldn't know all the answers, until he finally came to the doorway, pausing to take a deep breath and straighten out his clothes to add a boost of confidence, trying to fight the butterflies in his stomach. He could hear what sounded like a radio tuned to a rock station.

_Here goes nothing,_ he thought as he opened the door.

There was Asuka, sitting upright on her bed, quietly expecting him, while the radio on the bedside table playing a Cranberries track. She looked haggard, but otherwise there was remorse in her eyes that told him she wasn't in the mood for a shouting match, as it was before the Angel attacked her. Instead of an outburst, she merely greeted, "Hello, Shinji."

"Uh… Good morning, Asuka," he responded, picking the best polite answer possible. "How are you doing?"

The girl sighed. "Just okay, even if I'm a bit tired because of the damned sedatives."

Shinji went to sit down on a vacant chair beside her bed and said, "I thought you might want to talk to me."

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, I'm going home. I'm done here because I think there's a life much better than being a pilot. I want to walk away clean. I don't want to worry too much anymore. I want to be _normal_. Instead, I'm sorry for everything I did."

Shinji did a double-take. "Why?"

Asuka took a breath. "Because it's my damned fault for being so much of a bitch at everyone, especially you," she admitted.

* * *

Tsutomo Kanzaki was on his way back to his waiting Audi staff car, almost running, when at a corner he unexpectedly bumped into a man carrying a laptop bag, with a Section Two ID card clipped onto his suit. For a moment he caught the man's name and department on the card: Keith Sanderson, Reports and Requirements Department; he was the former CIA man who now refined and polished the paperwork from raw field info to readable reports.

"Sorry," Tsutomo apologized before he quickly got up onto his feet and went back on track.

Sanderson, on the other hand, merely looked away without a word as he frowned, picking up his bag and stood up. _You losers aren't going to make it out alive,_ he thought.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** It's been weeks since the previous chapter, because I had to deal with problems on my side, and perhaps hopefully I'm out of it.

By now, this morning the national elections will be held, and I hope that whoever wins the highest post in the land shouldn't screw up in the next six years.

As usual the dialogue and the flow needed a big deal of thinking, especially when I was trying to get Asuka's personality done in a proper way; and at the same time try to see how a person adjusts to life after a long time in the bed. There's at least one or two loose ends (from some previous chapters) dealt with. I also wanted to see how things are going on inside Section Two, perhaps one of the most misunderstood parts of NERV.

If there's anything wrong, try to drop me a line. Thanks for coming with me this far, I'll try to keep up.


	16. 21 Guns

In a windowless, whitewashed room somewhere in the Geofront, Rei Ayanami was sitting on a folding chair, opposite Misato Katsuragi, with a plain square table between them. Just behind Misato was a digital video camera on a tripod, recording everything, and she held a sheet of paper stating the rights of the interviewee. On the table were a notebook and a pen, and the camera's remote control. At the far corner of the room was a tea service cart, and Rei knew that Kaworu was just outside the room, waiting for his turn. Only one part of the wall had a mirror, and she guessed it must be a one-way mirror, so someone was surely watching her.

She will have to answer everything she knew about yesterday's incident, and the girl must watch her words.

"Miss Ayanami," Misato said, reading the girl's rights. "By agreeing to this inquest, understand that anything you say in the next half-hour will be used to help the investigators answer questions about the failed compatibility test. As your commanding officer, I assure you that your statements, which will be recorded by that video camera right behind me for documentation purposes, will not be used against you by any disciplinary body for any infractions. Furthermore, under Section 15 in the NERV Manual of Conduct and Regulations, I assure that your rights will be upheld, and all contents of that video recording of the proceedings will be kept confidential. Is that clear?"

The First Children nodded. "Yes."

Misato tabled the rights paper. "Good. Now let's begin by identifying yourself."

"I am Rei Ayanami, First Children. I am fourteen years of age, female, service number 300192. I am permanently assigned to the Evangelion Project, formerly the pilot of Eva Prototype Unit Zero, destroyed recently, and currently I am not on active duty."

Misato nodded. "Okay. Now tell me what happened yesterday. You can go from the beginning."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 16: TWENTY-ONE GUNS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 5/21/2010 22:27 a5/p5

* * *

For the first time in days, Shinji and Asuka have finally come face to face with each other. The young man was the first to break the silence after a moment.

"I've been worried about you," he said. "Every time I see you on the bed, I… I felt responsible. I wanted to protect you but my father held me back. Then you ran away and… I was shocked when I found out. You see, I wanted you not to be that empty shell on the bed, and I was then angry at myself for letting you down, and angry at him for putting me down." Shinji sighed.

"But Shinji," Asuka said. "I just have to admit this to you, but… I'm useless now. I'm sure that Misato may have told you what's behind me. I never told everyone my past, as I denied it too often."

"You mean…"

"Kaworu said that I'm no different from you other than changing a few details. My mother killed herself after going mad; my dad married someone I despised because she had an affair with him. All that made me angry enough to put much distance from them, no matter what they say."

The redhead sighed before going on. "After she died, I then made a promise myself to bury the past, not to cry anymore. I don't want to see the nightmare of her strangling my neck, or watching her hanging from the ceiling. I don't want to see myself like that, yet after that Angel nearly killed me, after I've lost my strength I was close to dying like her."

Asuka showed her bandaged wrists to Shinji, who nodded quietly.

"By making myself superior to everyone else," Asuka said, "I thought I could conquer everything even the past, but the past always tries to leak out. Even then I tried to stop the nightmares, but they almost always came back."

Shinji hung his head, pursed his lips.

"Look," Asuka said. "Listen to me… I've spent my entire life on Eva. I thought about piloting, ate, drank, slept… I studied for the job. I loved every minute being in control, going off to battle… I then loved the fix of being in Eva, I felt the adrenaline whenever I'm the pilot… But no more."

The redhead sighed.

"All I ever wanted then was for people to see me as 'mature'. I want to be seen as a grown-up, able to take care of myself. I then insisted on asking for no help. Doing those I thought would make me happy… I was really deluding myself. I'm just like you."

Shinji raised his head and stared at Asuka. "I finally saw why you are hiding your true self. Yes, I'm the same as you are, too… I was a pilot for a different reason, though at first I never wanted this in the first place."

He imagined his father towering over him, indifferent and cold.

"I wanted to be accepted," he said, "to be praised, so that I can be happy, but I couldn't get enough. I also thought that by doing everything to please him, my father could pay attention to me but he was always far away. I thought he hated me by using me to be stuck in bad things I don't want. Like when he let the Dummy Plug take over Unit One."

The young man closed his eyes with remorse.

"For that, and I felt responsible for Toji, I was angry at Father, so I wanted to give up and leave. I tried to leave, but for some reason I couldn't because there's something that kept me back, just like when the Angel went down to the Geofront and nearly killed everyone. That made me come back to save you all as I felt I couldn't simply leave the relationships I mad. I fought because I don't want everyone to die, and I realized my purpose.

"But then things began to fall apart; first, there was Toji, then the other Angel attacked you, before Ayanami went down, until I was afraid, I couldn't do anything until Kaworu came here and talked to me about my fears."

"What did he told you?"

"Get myself a grip, try not to be afraid. He said he was concerned about me, so I took his advice and tried to be a better person."

"He came to me, too," Asuka said. "We talked, and I said I've done too many mistakes, I was too harsh, and I nearly killed myself because I didn't realize I was being immature. Instead, Kaworu told me to change for the better."

"I understand," Shinji answered.

The girl closed her eyes. "Shinji, I'm very sorry," Asuka mumbled.

"No… I'm sorry, too."

Both Children stared at each other. It was true enough, there was no difference between them, their individual desires and hates, though wildly different, were nothing compared to the common pain they shared: Mothers consumed by the Evas they occupied; fathers who neglected or abandoned them; they lived lives of misery, fear and self-delusion; they tried to gain acceptance, but at a bitter price; they sought happiness, but left unsatisfied and hungry. It was only fate that put them here together, and though they once despised each other, today they have to face the music.

There would be no illusions this time.

"It's all even, Shinji," Asuka said, as the radio began to play The Fray's "Over My Head". "Forgive me instead. It's time for me to let go."

Shinji thought of this and he answered, "I forgive you now, because we can't win anything by arguing over even the smallest things."

Asuka gave him a small smile. "Thanks," she said, and then pulled Shinji's arms to hug her tight. The girl then whispered to his ear, "Thanks for everything, even if you tried, even if you were frightened or feeling negative…"

"Yes," Shinji answered almost quietly. "I did my best."

_I held you, I helped you, and I did everything._

The hug lasted for two minutes, before the couple disengaged gently, knowing that the war between them was over.

* * *

After they went step-by-step through the uneventful sync procedures, Misato was now at the point where Rei talked about Unit-01 suddenly going berserk.

"Did the Eva invade your mind?" the woman officer asked.

"It was different," Rei answered. "The past came back to me, those that I thought I had forgotten or I could not recall. I thought I was being erased, I remember being in pain. I could not even pull the ejection handle."

"Have you also experienced total blackout? Lost consciousness?"

"Yes."

Misato wrote down a few lines, before continuing.

"Medical records and mission logs showed that after your last sortie with Unit Zero you couldn't remember, you had some sort of amnesia, but Shinji said that you can now do it even with some small details. Is it true?"

"Yes," Rei agreed.

"Can you give an example or two? I'm all ears."

Rei took a breath and began narrating the first time she met Shinji when the Angel attacked and he was fresh from arriving. She could remember being swaddled in bandages, still in the hospital bed, and Shinji was already panicking when the Angel made its first assault. The earth shook, causing steel beams and lights to come crashing down, but before the debris could impale them, the Eva moved her arm to shield the Children.

Quickly Misato scribbled some notes. Inwardly she was astonished by Rei's renewed capacity to recall everything, as she was also there on that same day.

"Okay… Can you remember when I had to tell Asuka to get along with Shinji? You know, their sync training a few months back?"

"Yes," Rei answered, before she started on her account of the two other Children arguing right in front of her, with Asuka refusing to get along with him and her; there was Hikari playing with Pen-Pen while Toji and Kensuke were wondering how Asuka could dance with Shinji.

Again Misato could only blink. The same details, down to the exact dialogue and the description, and like Shinji reported, Rei told her past events to him as if they happened yesterday.

"Rei," she said after a moment of contemplation, "let's take a short break as I sort this out. You may help yourself to some tea over there." Misato picked up the camera's remote control and pressed the Pause button.

"Thank you, Major," the girl answered, feeling relieved as she walked over to the tea service cart and began making a cup. She watched Misato stand up and walk out of the room through the door, notes in hand.

* * *

"Shinji?" Asuka asked. It's been minutes since they let the music from the radio fill out the room, as they contemplated about themselves, and hoping that with all their issues settled they could begin anew. Green Day was singing "Twenty-One Guns".

The young man was still seated. "Yes?"

"I wanted to know something… Like your past," she said. "I never bothered to ask you about it before."

"Me?"

"Yeah, like what you were doing when you were in kinder or something like that."

"I was alone. Couldn't find friends. Sometimes after I finished my cello lessons I watched my neighbors' kids go home with their moms, so I wished Mom was with me so that I can be really happy."

Shinji sighed. "At nights I asked myself, 'Why do I have to live like this?' and 'Why I don't have a mother?'. Though my uncle was okay, inside I felt empty and lonely, needing something to fill that out. Then I wake up every morning, and look down at the gate at the front yard, wishing Mom suddenly appear right there. I always did that for years."

The young man bowed his head, pursing his lips in disappointment. "But nothing happened in all those years until I realized there was no point hoping she wasn't gone. From kinder until before I came here, I walked home on my own. Every time there's a parent-teacher meeting, I was the only one in class who didn't have a parent; my uncle would come instead, and when I finished elementary and on the day of my graduation ceremony I even hoped someone would come, maybe even Father, though my uncle said that his work kept him from coming."

.Shinji shook his head. "That night, I wished that somehow Father would accept me, and maybe give me even a bit of respect. When I received the letter from him, telling me to come, I never expected he would put me in here, right in the Entry Plug, trying to fight his battles while he stood there watching."

Realizing that he was shedding tears, Shinji wiped them off with the sleeve of his shirt.

"I understand… It's lonely at the top," Asuka said.

"I thought you have friends," Shinji answered.

Asuka shook her head. "No, until I came here, I didn't have any true friends, only acquaintances. Some people would keep their distance from me because they're really afraid of smart people."

Asuka could remember back at college, when at nights she could see from her dorm window the throngs of young students walking together down the promenade, laughing and talking. While they were enjoying themselves, she shut herself in, stacks of books piled onto her study desk.

"Did being a prodigy made me better? I don't know but I really lived in an ivory tower. I stood apart even from the other prodigies at my age. I thought I was a star, hungry for attention."

The redhead imagined the press photographers flashing their cameras on her, walking away from yet another quiz bee competition, while her opponents scratched their heads. Next thing she gave out interviews on TV and the papers, crediting her intellect in winning victories.

"At one time I had one room full of trophies, certificates and medals, and that's all. I finished college with a double degree in mathematics and physics, and from there I told myself I can conquer the world."

Asuka shook her head. "Now I realized they're nothing but just pieces of metal and paper, like what that Hudson guy in _Cars_ said: an empty cup. My selfishness came with a price, and was I'm happy about doing that? No, it really made me lonely."

* * *

As Rei nursed her cup of tea, she remembered about Shinji coming to her home, wondering what she was doing at the time. Rei bought some Earl Grey, a strainer and a simple tea set for her to experiment on making her own, wanting to taste the real deal without having to rely on instant tea bags. Fortunately, Shinji came just in time and he taught her how to make tea correctly, even as she nearly scalded herself with a kettle full of boiling water.

She liked the memory of it, and that made her feel better. Now Rei wished she could do it again with someone, and share the experience.

Suddenly she had an idea.

_I could invite Kaworu for tea_, she thought.

* * *

"I'm curious… Can you tell me about your mom?" Asuka inquired. The radio was playing an Incubus track.

"Mom died a long time ago," Shinji said, "when I was three or four, I think."

"What happened?"

Shinji sighed. "It's like this: she took me to some place I don't know. I could remember she was wearing a lab coat, talking to… I think it was the Sub-Commander. I don't know what they were talking about, but I could remember her saying something."

"Like what?"

"If I'm right… It went like this: she wanted to show me the bright future."

"And where were you at that time?"

The gears in Shinji's mind began to turn, trying to go back into the past, trying to recall every detail of that day, even if the past was also murky.

"I…" he stammered at first, but in two blinks of an eye he was there. Right before him, separated only by a thick sheet of Plexiglas, was the Eva with its fearsome scowl.

"I was here before," he whispered. "I thought I was going for some field trip with her."

He could imagine the concrete floor, the rubber sandals on his feet, and the wide-eyed expression on his face. The air-conditioning was a bit cold, the air ionized, the hushed voices of scientists, and there was the din of keyboards clacking behind him.

"But what happened next… everything went wrong. People scared, running everywhere, like they were trying to save her. Someone took me out of that place, grabbed me… I don't know why, except the next thing I knew someone was talking to me."

"Who?"

_Two scientists were standing before Shinji; one was trying to explain to the other. The klaxons blared while personnel were running about, mostly on their way to the disaster zone._

"_What in the world you have to do with this kid?" the other scientist demanded._

"_I'll take care of him," the first one answered back._

_Shinji shouted, "Where's Mama?"_

_The first scientist turned to him. He had gray hair, almost old, but at the moment he knelt down and faced Shinji, hands on the boy's shoulders._

"_Listen, Shinji… I'm Fuyutsuki, your mother's friend. You may not understand this, but she tried to do something that wasn't supposed to be part of the standard test procedure. She actually changed the parameters, causing this to happen. Anyway, this is my responsibility; I'm sorry for your mother, son, I have to get this fixed and we have to get her out! Just stay there, I'll be back!"_

_Fuyutsuki ran off to the direction where the Eva stood._

"I don't really know how she died," Shinji said. "The next few days Father took me to my uncle, and just left me there. That, I think, is where I went wrong."

* * *

In the other room, Misato was talking to Natsumi, who'd been there before the debriefing started, and watching everything through the one-way mirror along with a spare video camera recording everything. They could see Rei partake a cup of green tea, silently contemplating between sips. Natsumi held a bottle of Pocari Sweat, half-full and sloshing, before she took a swig.

"You're right," Misato said, watching the doctor drink. "Just as you have reported, there's no sign of any symptom of amnesia, and the events she recalled were exactly as I remember, down to the smallest details."

"I think my theory is becoming valid," Natsumi answered, placing the Pocari bottle on a nearby table.

The lady officer frowned. "What theory?"

"My idea, sorry if it's so far-fetched, is that the Angel that attacked her and Unit Zero also served as some conduit as it came in contact with Unit One, linking Shinji and Rei and both Evas together."

"A conduit for what?"

"Memories, emotions, or just about anything neural. As the Angel infested and linked those two, down to their cores, it was also transferring information between the Evas, especially memories of themselves and the Children. For that moment they were a single organism. In the case of Unit One, there was a significant change in its memory composition after the attack."

"Why this hasn't been said before?"

"I just found it out this morning, while looking at her maintenance logs. At that time the anomaly wasn't significant. They thought it was battle damage or a synaptic power surge, so the techs corrected it with some reprogramming."

"And once Rei went back to board Unit One again, that Eva went nuts and simply wrote back that information… Memories, I mean, into her, am I right?"

Natsumi nodded. "That's correct."

Misato sighed. "It's another proof that our understanding about them is still small."

"Yeah. Oh, by the way… Since there's no personal information on him, I'll try to run a DNA analysis on Kaworu's blood sample. That can take as little as one hour to scan the whole three billion bases alone."

Three decades ago, a skilled geneticist can identify up to a thousand bases per day, yet it would take that scientist about 8,000 years to complete the entire human DNA sequence. But as technology progressed so was the speed of the DNA analyzers, taking thousands, then millions, and now billions of bases, cutting down the time to identify the bases. This enabled geneticists to easily identify genes that affected human health and physiological characteristics.

Misato was astonished. "You have it? That's great, but why?"

The young doctor picked up her bottle of Pocari Sweat and emptied it, before tossing the bottle into a wastebasket. "I'm curious as to what he really is."

"Something suspicious? I have the same thoughts about him because the Committee sent him here."

"Just a hunch, because when he's piloting, everything is child's play to him, and I'm sure you know this by now. Perfect every time. Great sync ratios unlike anything the other Children could ever hope to reach. Checking his genetic sequence might give us clues about his physical composition."

"I see. Get the analysis done, and then show the results only to _me_. Not to the Commander or anyone else. Then we'll try to explain all this to Fuyutsuki. Got it?"

"Okay," Natsumi agreed. "Why trust the Sub-Commander?"

"Because in my book, he's the sanest man at the top who could do something right, and could possibly even get us out of this jam."

* * *

On a bench, Kaworu was waiting, bidding his time. Earlier as they came along with Misato, who told them on what to do during the debriefing sessions, he talked to Rei while their superior officer was leading the way.

"_I wish to ask something," Rei said._

_Kaworu looked back at the girl. "I beg your pardon?"_

"_Can you tell me what those flowers are for?"_

"_You mean the roses I brought in for you?"_

_Rei nodded. "Yes."_

"_It's to show that I care, and that you're special."_

"_I thought they were useless," Rei answered._

_Kaworu frowned. "What do you mean?"_

_Rei couldn't give out a reason why. "I confess that have no idea about flowers."_

"_Well," Kaworu said, sighing for a second. "Flowers always have a purpose. Their universal beauty is well-appreciated even since before the beginning of civilization. And then where there are flowers, fruits and eventually seeds come next. That's how plant life flourishes. Otherwise we can smell their fragrant scent. No wonder why most people pay importance to flowers, and respect their fragile and delicate beauty, which is why they have even made paintings and wrote poems about them."_

_Rei gently nodded. "Now I understand."_

"_Thanks," Kaworu said, smiling a bit._

_In return, the girl gave him a faint smile. "I also thank you for the flowers."_

Now he thought of his feelings towards Rei. Even now, he couldn't describe them except every time he sees or think about her, a throbbing feeling came up into his heart. _What was it? How could I know?_

Misato came out of a door opposite of the debriefing room. "Sorry, we had a discussion with someone inside," she said, closing the door behind her.

"With whom?" Kaworu asked.

"Can't tell you now. Confidential, you see."

"Ah. I'm okay waiting here."

Misato glanced at her wristwatch. "Just a few more minutes, and it's your turn."

"Thank you, ma'am." Kaworu nodded as the lady officer went inside the debriefing room, before he returned to his thoughts, mind floating back on the day they faced the Commander, who was also arguing with the Sub-Commander. He wondered what was on the mind of Commander Ikari, and what his true intent was for Kaworu and Rei, other than the supposed purpose of the test.

Perhaps the Commander was trying to find a hidden power in Kaworu, and then exploit it. He remembered the man as saying that he wanted to record data while Kaworu used Unit-02.

Then Kaworu remembered the Dummy Plug Plant, although he had never set his foot upon it before.

This prompted him to look into his vast catalog of images captured from Rei's mind and began to back-track her imaginary footsteps through the mind-boggling maze of the Geofront, locating doors, passageways, direction signs, and even the passwords to break into locks, until he built a three-dimensional map before his mind's gaze.

_It's down there, _he thought, locating the plant near the center of Central Dogma.

But in the very bottom of this map, however, there was one huge door that he couldn't go inside, and when he tried he couldn't see what was behind it, so impenetrable and all he met was pure darkness, cold to the touch. He frowned.

_What was inside this place that Rei could enter it, and yet I can't?_

* * *

Misato took a deep breath and asked, "Were you able to control the Eva as she went out of control?"

"No," Rei said. "As I have stated earlier, I lost consciousness."

"And the next thing you saw once you woke up, Kaworu rescued you, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Okay… Before the test, what happened during the briefing? Anything significant?"

"They argued," Rei said, referring to Gendo and Fuyutsuki. "The Sub-Commander objected, saying it was dangerous to restart the Dummy Plug Project, but the Commander overruled him."

"Why?"

"He wanted to take advantage of an opportunity. He also thought that he could make me try again."

"Just like the previous compatibility test?"

"Yes."

Misato frowned. "Even if you have risked your life for it?"

The question caused Rei to hesitate for a moment, pondering. _I have put my life into the fulfillment of my duty. He considers me as important, but… But not my life. I want to value life and my existence. I do not want to make Ikari sad anymore._

"Yes. The Commander deems it as important to his work. He wishes to accomplish what he started."

The woman groaned. "Now there's one final question before we go: what does the Commander want from Nagisa?"

Misato could see Rei trying to find an answer, "I believe the Commander has found him useful, in the same way that I am. Therefore he was included in the test, to record his synch data," the girl said.

"Was he trying to use Nagisa's data to create a new Dummy Plug?"

Rei shook her head. "I am not sure."

Misato sighed, knowing that from the bits and pieces of information Rei gave to her, she was confident she could build a coherent picture of the Commander's intent, "Okay, I think that's all I can ask from you, Rei. You can stand up now."

Rei nodded as she rose from her chair. "Thank you, Major."

Misato picked up the remote control and pressed the Pause button again.

* * *

"For years, I thought of what Mom really looked like," Shinji said. "I don't even have a picture of her, and Father said that he didn't have one either. One time I even tried to search her picture on the Internet, but there's nothing about her, except I came upon a website."

"What site?" Asuka questioned.

"It's an alumni site listing the graduates of Kyoto University, where I found out that she had a doctor's degree in bioengineering. But no picture."

"Anything else?"

Shinji shook his head. "Nothing else about her, except it said she came from France."

"Well, have you tried to contact the university?"

"I did by email… a year ago, but they said that they don't have her name on their records. They also said that the website hasn't been updated properly."

Asuka frowned. "That's weird."

The young man bit his lip. "I guess I just have to imagine her instead. All's left is a grave marker with her name on."

Silence settled on the couple, trying to guess what to talk about instead, until Asuka broke the impasse.

"How's Kaji's case?" she asked, referring to her now-dead crush.

Shinji shrugged. "They're still investigating it. I'm sorry. But Misato's mad at Section Two because it's taking too long, and even now there were no suspects, she says."

"I'm sure she'll kill to finish it, because I felt she really loved him…" Asuka trailed.

"I know. It's just that she was also angry at herself for not saving him. She felt responsible for him."

The girl sighed. "By the way, where's Misato?"

"She's out there, debriefing Ayanami and Kaworu."

"Ah. What did you do with Misato last night?"

"W… We drank beer."

Asuka frowned. "What?"

"It was Misato's idea of bonding. Couldn't help it… Anyway, we had a very long conversation about each other. It was really my first time."

The redhead shook her head.

"She talked about her past," he said. "What she was doing at my age. Like me, she hated her father, who was obsessed with his work. Then she talked about Kaji, before we eventually went on to ourselves. I think we used up two six-packs before we passed out. I even puked."

"What? One round of beer would've brought you down," Asuka said.

"Strange, I was able to hold my drink throughout that evening."

"But you survived, anyway. Congratulations for breaking the age-twenty limit." Asuka laughed. "I wished I could've seen your face like that," she added.

Shinji meekly smiled. "Thanks."

Abruptly Asuka shuffled herself to the edge of her bed, legs first to the floor and tried to stand up. Surprised, Shinji went to the girl and held her upper arms, attempting to provide support. "Wait, what are you doing?" he gasped.

"I want to see if I can walk," she answered as the girl began to make one slow step at a time.

"Let me guide you," Shinji said, still holding. "I don't want to let you fall."

"O… Okay," Asuka blurted. _This time I'm giving him a chance, and I'm not going to use those stupid reverse psychology tricks._

The couple paced around the room for a few minutes until Asuka thought she could get her walking right. "Now, let me go for a while," she said. "I think I could feel my legs this time."

Shinji let go of her, and Asuka started to walk on her own, albeit slowly and carefully.

"Watch out," he warned, saw her wobbling.

"I know!" Asuka shot back, a few more steps to go. "I can do it!"

Shinji shook his head as he watched Asuka's progress, making another circuit. Seeing that she was able to stabilize herself and picking up the pace after a few minutes, he asked right in front of her, "How's it going?"

Asuka can only laugh. "It's all right now!" she exclaimed, but then she suddenly tripped, pitching forward onto Shinji and they crashed to the floor together, her body flattening the poor boy.

"Oops," she said.

"A… Are you okay?" Shinji asked. Blush crept onto his cheeks, as he felt her chest against him. But he couldn't believe that this time she wasn't making a nasty reaction or playing hard to get; before, she would have slapped his face and calling him a pervert. He also remembered her saying, _"In my case, do you think my breasts might get bigger when they're warm?"_

In that quiet moment, Asuka looked into his eyes. "I'm okay," she said. "I'm sorry. Let's try it again."

"What? Ah, you're right," he stammered as he watched Asuka get up onto her feet and she offered her hand to him. He took hold and Asuka pulled Shinji up.

"Thanks," he said as he watched the girl try to stretch her legs, wriggling toes and heels. He wondered what was pushing Asuka to walk again. Perhaps she was building up her courage to face another battlefront, a new life outside, without having to wear a plugsuit.

"Maybe I'll try running later," Asuka said, once more walking around Shinji on a brisk pace. "What time is it?"

Shinji checked his wristwatch. "It's a quarter till eleven," he said. "Why?"

"Do you have a cellphone with you?"

"Ah… yes," he said, quickly rummaging through his pockets and fished out a clamshell Casio phone. "Why? Do you want to call someone?"

"Yes, I want to talk to Hikari. You still have her number?"

Shinji nodded as he handed his cellphone to Asuka. "Yeah," he answered.

The girl began to press a few buttons, scrolling through the phonebook and then dialed Hikari's number. There were a few rings until she heard her friend pick it up.

"Hello," Asuka greeted.

"Is…Is that you?" Hikari stuttered. "I thought it's Shinji on the line."

"No, it's really me!" Asuka then laughed as she heard her pal scream her name, squeal in delight, and sobbing and chortling for a while until Hikari settled down.

"Where are you now?" Hikari asked, pausing to sniff. "I thought you're still hurt."

"I'm down here in the Geofront. This time I'm okay, and Shinji's with me."

"Thank goodness, we were so worried about you! Same thing with Shinji and Rei. We had to evacuate the city a week ago, just after Toji almost bought it."

"I see," Asuka said. "Glad to hear all of you doing right. How are your sisters?"

"They're on a double date right now. Toji's sister's still doing well, and Kensuke always keeps on watching war documentaries. Toji is supposed to get his new artificial arm this week or the next. By the way, if you're wondering about Pen-Pen…"

"Is that crazy bird with you? Still enjoying his sardines?"

"Well, yeah, he's finicky but I have no issue with him. He's still the same, although sometimes he misses Misato."

Asuka laughed as Shinji amusedly shook his head.

"Anyway…" Hikari said. "What are you going to do next?"

The redhead paused for a moment. "I'm sorry but I have to go home. Back to Germany."

"Oh." Hikari sounded disappointed.

"I'm done in here. I'm quitting. My sync rate's really screwed-up so I can't use Unit Two anymore. Instead I want to be normal. Maybe I'll pursue on playing the violin."

"A few months ago, everyone would've killed for such a job like yours," Hikari said.

"Yes, that's right, but now… No, everyone's gonna get a really bad case of a reality check if they were in my shoes. That's the truth. Toji knows that."

"Now that you're going back, how can you live once you're there?"

Asuka sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I'll find new friends, but I can try to keep in touch with you guys. I don't forget."

"I still have you on Facebook and on Mixi," Hikari said, referring to her accounts in both social networking websites. "Just in case."

The redhead chuckled. "Much thanks."

"Um, I forgot to ask… How's Shinji, Misato and Rei?"

"They're all right, too."

"That's good. I like you sounding much better this time, a little calm."

"Sure is, especially when I realized that I made too many mistakes. Guess today I have to come clean."

"You're right," Hikari agreed. "Um, anyway… I heard from Shinji that you guys have a new friend."

"You mean that Nagisa boy?"

"Well, yeah, that's his name, although I have yet to see him. I also heard that he's sticking with Rei. Is that true?"

"I think so," Asuka said. "Last time I saw him, he was with her most of the time because she got into a testing accident and had to get well in the Infirmary."

"What?" Hikari exclaimed.

"Hey, nothing serious," Asuka reassured. "Just a bruise on her. I checked on the Wondergirl this morning. Had a little chat. No rivalry this time… I think we're on good terms now."

The girl on the other end sounded relieved. "Oh, I see. Thank God."

"That Nagisa guy's been here for a few days."

"I see. Is he really nice?"

"Way beyond it. So polite. Sometimes he makes jokes about himself, but all in all, he's a real looker, except I think he's pulling Rei out of the freezer."

Hikari laughed. "The poor girl," she said. "But she's lucky. He must be a prince."

"Yeah, she even got roses from him. Fresh white ones in a bouquet... don't know where he picked them up. They looked expensive."

"Oh, that's quite thoughtful," Hikari praised. "Anything else?"

"The only odd thing about Kaworu is that he wondered what dating was all about. I gave him a lecture on it, because I went through one. He admitted he hasn't experienced a date in his whole life, so I think he might have been living in some cave. Anyway, he wants to try dating Rei."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and he means it. He also said he wants to learn first before diving in."

"Okay… It's all right if he wants his first time."

Asuka sighed, shaking her head. "It's too bad that I have to go… would've been interesting to get to know more about them the second time around."

"When you'll be back?"

"I don't know… Maybe someday when things get better for me I'll drop by."

"I hope so."

"By the way," Asuka said. "I think I may have to eat lunch after this, and then I'm going."

"Ah, okay. Love you sister," Hikari said. "Be a little careful, right?"

"I know. I love you, too. Bye! Auf Wiedersehen! I'll call you back later on the plane!"

"Goodbye! I'll see you again! Ja ne!"

As soon Hikari hung up, Asuka snapped the phone back and handed it to Shinji. "How did it go?" the boy asked, pocketing the phone.

"Well… I feel much better," she said, a beatific expression on her face. "Thank you, Shinji."

* * *

As he stood up from his seat, Kaworu watched Rei and Misato come out of the room. The girl was in her usual calm demeanor, so he asked, "How did it go?"

"It was normal," Rei said, the girl sitting down onto the bench. "Only some important questions."

Misato nodded at Kaworu. "It's your turn," she said, and led him into the room.

As the door closed behind them and she sat onto the bench, Rei felt mildly relieved and then she sank into her thoughts about the roses, white petals intricately nestled in layers, opening outwards.

_If he says that flowers are delicate and fragile, he knows that I am special. He thinks that I am comparable to a flower._

Rei's mind wandered to the cryptic "poem" she recited to herself months ago, and then recalled Kaworu's earlier explanation.

_A flower may be useless, if I look at it, but Kaworu is otherwise right. It has a purpose. It lives. It gives life... the seeds of life, and it nourishes._

_That makes the flower very special._

* * *

After Misato read Kaworu's rights and the purpose of the debriefing, and the Fifth Children stated his name, rank and service number, she asked him to narrate what happened on that day. Step-by-step, he explained the sequence of events, from initiation to the unexpected rejection; he was then ordered to stop Unit-01 until he put that Eva out of commission and rescued Rei.

"She was unconscious when I pulled her out," Kaworu said.

Misato nodded. "Go on."

"I thought she drowned, so I immediately administered resuscitation, and she recovered."

"Good. Okay, can you tell me what else you have noticed during the incident?"

Kaworu thought for a moment. "The Bakelite dispensers didn't work. If I'm right, having read the standard manual on Eva testing procedures, they should always be ready during a test, to be used in case of emergency."

"That's true, and the emergency plug ejection system should've also kicked in to save her, but it didn't, and as you said you went manual override to get her out."

"Yes, that is correct."

"Now… Let's go on to a different question: it may be redundant to ask now, but how Unit Two responded to you on the first time?"

"It was normal, like as if I was wearing a second skin. I managed to be in full control."

Misato scribbled notes. "Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary while inside that Eva, in the Entry Plug?"

"Not much, except there's a trace of Asuka's scent inside." He knew this because Asuka was apparently wearing too much baby cologne on missions before he came here; maybe she was trying to tone down the odor of LCL.

"I see… What else?"

Kaworu thought of answering it, that Unit-02's soul retreated upon his presence, submitting to his will, but he gave Misato a different answer. "I guess I have nothing else to say."

* * *

Asuka was just finished talking to the nurse via intercom, requesting that someone should empty her locker and bring its contents to her in a box, including some spare clothes for her to wear.

"You said Kaworu talked to you," Shinji spoke.

"Yeah," Asuka said. "I told him almost everything, but the hairy thing about him… it seemed that he knew my past."

The young man scratched his head in askance. "How come?"

"I don't know how he did it, but I think he has this power. No, maybe he went through my records, and only a few people really know who I am behind the façade."

Shinji frowned. "What power? You mean he's unusual, or he has some abilities? I don't understand, but why?"

Asuka paused for a moment. "You may not believe this, but… He appeared to me in my dreams last night, before I woke up."

The boy was flabbergasted. "What?"

"I'm not joking, okay? The dream looked all too real, and I found myself talking to him. He said he knew everything about me." Asuka then described the vivid details to Shinji, who looked perplexed.

"I couldn't believe it," he said, frowning.

"I know you can't, because I'm probably the only one to experience it. He said he came from Germany, right?"

"Yeah."

"Didn't tell you anything else?"

Shinji shrugged. "No, he was keeping much to himself, I guess. Just like Ayanami."

"Still," Asuka said, trying to stretch her legs, "I really like him, even if he's here for a few days. Apart from making moves on Rei, what else he did while I was absent?"

"Since he's an official pilot, naturally he needs to be tested, and he made a very good sync rate."

"How much?" Asuka demanded.

"If I could remember… it's around seventy percent... No, seventy-five!"

Asuka's jaw dropped completely. "WHAT?" she screeched. "Shit… that's a sick percentage!"

"That's from his first normal test, synching to your Eva, and he wasn't bluffing," Shinji said, but then he took note of Asuka's shocked expression. "I thought you wanted to forget about sync rates. Why bother again?"

"B… But it's too hard to reach such a figure," she stammered. "You've gone to the limit the last time, you're the only one who punched to 400%, and that was only when you went on berserker mode before Unit One turned you into goo."

"I know. He can also fight and shoot his way through as if it's almost a video game."

"What the heck he is, anyway? And who selected him in the first place?"

Shinji merely shrugged. "I don't really know, except Kaworu has the best of everything and anything my father wanted in an Eva pilot, but I'm not backing down just because he's almost perfect. Fortunately for us, he's not the kind who would throw his weight around and scare everyone."

"Well… On second thought," Asuka said, her composure returned. "Kaworu's massive sync rate doesn't mean he's not my friend this time."

Suddenly they heard a knock on the door, and then Nurse Chigusa's head peeked out.

"Pardon me," the nurse said. "It's really important."

"What is it?" Asuka asked.

"Miss Langley, better get ready for your final examination," she announced. "Doctor Odani's waiting for you."

* * *

Misato looked bored, yawning, as it was obvious that the two Children almost had the same story, so she made a decision in dire need of a lunch break.

"Looks like we can finish right here," she said, sandwiching her notes into a folder before pressing the Stop button on the remote. "Are you hungry?"

Kaworu shook his head. "Not yet," he said. "Everything I said, that's as far as I know."

"What about tonight, and perhaps we go out for dinner at home?" Misato suggested as she stood up and ejected the SD flash memory card from the camera and pocketed it. "Just that we have something to discuss off-the-record. You and me."

"Good. I don't think I'll be having anything else to do today," he said, standing up from his seat. "Besides, I have a few things to talk about with you, and I was waiting for a chance.'

Misato then glanced at the ceiling, an idea forming in her mind. "Say, why don't you ask Rei to come along with us for lunch? Once I leave you two alone, you can have an opportunity to have some private time with her."

Kaworu smiled. "Thank you. It would be just right."

"Well, yes. Woman's intuition tells me that you're wishing for it."

The young man chuckled, but then thought of something else, and voiced it. "Maybe… First, I'd like to see where Rei actually lives."

"Her home?"

"Yes."

Misato shrugged. "It's not far from the nearest gate. She lives in a flat, except it's almost a slum. A risky place for her to live in, but her apartment block's the only safe building down there."

"I see. I'm really curious."

Misato opened the door and Rei was there, who stood up for them. Kaworu asked, "I wish to visit your home."

"Why?" Rei inquired.

"Just to know how do you live."

"If you want to, I can lead you there," Rei said. "I must also inspect the house. We could also have some tea."

Kaworu smiled. "Makes good sense. You've been here for more than a day. By the way, would you like to join us for lunch first?"

Rei nodded. "It would be fine," she said, before Kaworu and Misato heard something unearthly. Kaworu cocked an eye in askance, but Misato was blinking.

"That's a first for you, I think," she remarked, a sweatdrop forming upon her head.

It was the sound of Rei's stomach, growling empty, and the First Children had a slight blush on her otherwise-pale cheeks.

* * *

Halfway around the world, in Keel Lorenz's office, a uniformed man stood in attention before him.

Ramrod-straight in his military bearing, the man had a crew cut, wearing digital camouflage fatigues and a Colt Model 1911 pistol in his belt holster. His face was chiseled like granite, his blue-gray eyes were alert and intelligent, but the man's army-cut hair was gray with age. A graduate of West Point, he'd seen elite military service for twenty years, under the aegis of the US Army's Delta Force, then ten years more for SEELE, acting as a chief operating officer of a large private military corporation (PMC) that the secretive organization operated as a business front.

"I know you signed up for this a long time ago," Keel said, who was almost finished reading a report in a folder in his gnarled hands.

"That's right, sir," the man responded, his voice almost raspy. "My cancer just gave me twelve months left to live, but I'd like to make the most of what's left. I'd rather go down fighting than looking like shit on bed as the padre reads out the last rites."

Keel tabled the folder onto the desk. He didn't mind the Colonel's brusque manner, understanding that the military man was an efficient destroyer. "Colonel, what's the current status of your assault force?" he inquired.

"They're still in training, reviewing every detail of the entire Geofront complex. Whoever designed the whole place seemed to have overdone it with too many passageways, but it's better than those caves in Afghanistan."

Keel nodded. "What else?"

The Colonel coughed, but he took a breath and continued. "We undertook a detailed review of vital personnel we would eliminate, and then discussed the methods of destroying any opposition we face, even those unarmed. Security forces are a pain in the ass, however, as it depends on their disposition and morale, but judging from further reports and good intel from the inside, they're easy to deal with because they limited their budget, and therefore the size of their armory. They're capable of warding off small-size terrorist attacks, but they can be destroyed by a hard-core military division."

"Go on," Keel said. "I personally had their security budget pared down."

"Their defense systems are powerful, but limited to large targets such as those Angels. They have good surveillance and early-warning systems, though, but we can nullify them by going low under the radar, then use EMP weapons mounted on the Dragons, destroy the defenses before going in for the kill. The SSDF would do the rest, though, with scorched-earth policy through their heavy arsenal even if they're actually cannon fodder."

Keel knew that the Russian-French-built C-21 Dragons were the largest VTOL aircraft ever built, whose military purpose was to deliver a massive amount of destruction and then bring in a fully-equipped assault force in large numbers in its cargo hold. Only the old man and the Colonel knew where this assault force was located, but was no more than an hour of flying time to reach Japan.

"However, I think you know whose life we should spare for the purpose of our ascension."

The Colonel nodded. "Yes, sir. Only one… This Shinji Ikari boy you talked about. How about Kaworu Nagisa that you've sent there?"

"He's preparing everything for us, to see how they react, and where they are vulnerable."

"Like a Trojan horse, they'll never know what'll hit them."

"His sacrifice would be worth it, and from there we proceed as planned. Anyway, how do you feel now that you're part of this, Colonel Miles Quaritch?"

Quaritch grinned. "I'm ready, Mister Chairman," he said, before lighting up a cigar he had in his left pocket, a genuine Cohiba. "I can't wait to see the day… However, sir, there's something for you to know."

"I beg your pardon, Colonel?"

"Mister Lorenz, I've been through many wars," Quaritch said, smoke floating around his head, "paid and fought well, but no amount of money, power or tons of medicines in this world would ever defeat Death. We're lucky to survive this far, what with some people going after my neck, while others want me to do their dirty work, but certainly soon we're sure that you and I will have our numbers up. As for me, I'm the delivery service for the Reaper, and I don't regret doing the job, even if I could get to see the man himself in the end."

Quaritch pulled a drag at his cigar, and then exhaled a stream of Cuban smoke. His doctor warned him, but what the hell, better enjoy the simple pleasures while still living and up on two feet.

"I'd like to be there when we would make it happen, my way and yours. Fire and steel."

Keel nodded. "Very well said," he agreed, before the old man slowly stood up. "Since I believe that you have so much to work on, you may go check on your preparations, Colonel. Thank you for your time."

"Thank you, sir." Colonel Quaritch snapped a very smart salute, pivoted and walked out of the office.

Once he was alone, Keel wondered what his angelic representative was doing in Tokyo-3 right now. He was hoping that Kaworu was acting on his plans, but also hoping that the young man wasn't doing anything contrary to his vision.

* * *

The long-haired Shigeru Aoba was on his way to Asuka's room in the Infirmary, pushing a trolley laden with a box of her belongings from the locker in the Eva pilot's ready room. Fuyutsuki gave him the job after the nurse relayed the request from the girl, and he thought it a welcome respite from his tedious routine at the command bridge.

He thought it disappointing that after all the time she tried her best being a pilot and she fell down from her high pedestal, Asuka was now calling it quits.

"Fallen so far, and so hard," he told himself, before launching into a whistling version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". As he whistled, his mind made musical associations: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and then Guns and Roses. He knew the story, a sheriff grown weary of his duty, probably overwhelmed by outlaws, disease and age, decided to dispose of his badge and pistols, knowing he was about to die.

Shigeru knew of Asuka's plight, and in a sense it was like the old sheriff's fate. She lost the battle, went down hard, her heart broken, and tried to kill herself. But today he wondered what she was doing right now, as the girl was clearly preparing to leave this town, probably never to return again.

His mind wandered to other things, like what he would like to do when his tour of duty ends after the possible defeat of the last Angel. This they talked about with his other bridge buddies.

"_Say, I wonder what you two are going to do once we're done," Makoto said to Maya and Shigeru, who were nursing their mugs of coffee. "In my case," he added, "I think either I'll apply for a new job doing analysis work or become a teacher. I'd like to have some peace of mind after all this. How about you?"_

_Makoto was looking at Maya._

"_Me? Uh… I'll go on working on supercomputers, or apply for a job at CERN," she said._

_Shigeru frowned. "CERN? That's a long shot, and I believe there's a long waiting list for applicants unless you have a very long list of recommendations."_

_Maya shrugged. "I know, but otherwise I'll be fine doing work at a small computer company, or if I really liked to enjoy working on what I love, start a small business designing and selling cat-themed merchandise."_

_Makoto laughed. "It's okay starting small. You'll earn big from it. Girls still love cute stuff."_

"_Okay," Shigeru cut in. "As for me, I guess joining a band would be nice. I've wanted to make the best of my guitar. It's not good to see that Stratocaster sitting around for too long."_

"_Ah…" Maya said. "What kind of band you want to join? There's so many of them."_

"_A cover band might be okay, but I'd like to join a real one. Heck, I even have some original compositions."_

"_Can I hear one of them, even if you don't have a guitar with you?" Maya asked._

"_Sure," Shigeru said, before he typed out commands to open a MIDI file and play it. He handed to Maya a headset for her to hear his music. After a few minutes, Maya smiled._

"_This is great! I don't know that you can write something like this," she praised._

"_Thanks," Shigeru nodded._

_After a moment, Makoto said, "I wonder how things would look like if we win in the end."_

_Shigeru shrugged. "Beats me… I hope nothing goes wrong as we take a bow."_

Now the part-time lead guitarist found himself at Asuka's doorstep, and he checked the scrap of paper that told him the right room number: 303. He knocked repeatedly, then the door swung open and he was face to face with Shinji, who was acting as the doorman.

"It's me, Lieutenant Aoba," Shigeru said. "Good afternoon, anyway."

"That's her stuff?" Shinji asked, as both men pushed the trolley into the room.

Shigeru nodded. "Yeah, right. I emptied her locker. Everything's in that box, and… where's she right now?"

"Asuka's having a checkup, and she'll be back in a few minutes."

"I see. I'm sorry to know she'll be out of here."

Shinji looked glum. "Yeah, she needed a clean break."

"Say, tell Miss Langley that I left her box here to you," Shigeru reminded. "I can't linger too long, 'cause I have some work to do back at my station."

Shinji nodded. "Okay, it's all right. Thanks."

"My pleasure," Shigeru said as he left, closing the door.

* * *

Now alone with the box, Shinji opened it to begin inspecting the contents. Inside were her two sets of plugsuits, spare interface headsets, toiletries, towels, and her clothes. He took out a red Uniqlo baby-tee, a pair of jeans, a bra and panties, and if needed, a sanitary napkin, and laid them all onto her bed. He also found a pair of Keds sneakers, and placed them on the floor.

But he noticed something at the bottom of the box, and he pulled out a small framed picture. Shinji was now looking at a picture of Kaji and Asuka, with the girl piggybacking on him, her laughter frozen by the shot, with blue skies behind their backs.

He wistfully smiled before he reverently put it back in.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** It's been five days since the last chapter, but working on this took a great deal of labor and experimentation, especially when it came to reconciling Asuka and Shinji. I want their conflict to end on a good note, but more importantly, come to terms with themselves.

For today's chapter, and with a developing habit of putting favorite movie characters in _LW _(and in-character, of course), I have Colonel Miles Quaritch from _Avatar_ to serve as Keel's henchman and the head of SEELE's "Praetorian Guard".

OBTW, here's a short description on some ACCs in this fic:  
_Captain Tsutomo Kanzaki (CV: Jun Fukuyama):_ tall at 5'10", strongly-built. Wears a crew cut. Has gray eyes. He's a ringer for Sung Kang.  
_Doctor Natsumi Odani (CV: Ami Koshimizu):_ stands at 5'4". Her brown-black hair has a short bob cut. Slim. Has dark brown eyes, and sometimes she wears horn-rimmed glasses. Resembles Miki Nakatani (see _Silk_).  
_Director Shuya Hamamoto (CV: Norio Wakamoto):_ a little stout, and he's 5'8". Graying, thinning hair. He's like Beat Takeshi in appearance, but sterner and has this constipated look on his face.

If you have any questions or comments, I'll try to answer them. Thanks for reading, people.

**Quote of the Day:** _"12. You are not Anno. You are not better than the creator. You cannot know 100% of everything in Eva being that it was Anno's vision. __**A fic is your interpretation of Eva.**__"_ –from _Rion's Eva Writing Workshop_


	17. Turning Point

Captain Trudy Chacon, of NERV's 1st Air Wing Service Squadron, was reading a copy of her orders from Director Hamamoto, and approved by Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, as she accompanied her Lockheed-Martin AV-24C Cheyenne II attack VTOL gunship, the huge express elevator delivering both up to the ground, where the crew at the helipad would service the bird, top up the fuel tank, arm it with eight AGM-114M Hellfire anti-tank missiles and a pair of Hydra WAFAR rocket launchers on the wing pylons, and fill up the ammo canister with 20mm rounds for the chain gun, bolted with a sensor/camera suite to a gimbal mounted under the nose, in lieu of the bottom canopy cluster on the pre-Second Impact B model.

Though it looked ungainly at first, this gunship was the toughest of its kind, with twin jet engines, redundant fly-by-light control systems, and even a cargo bay, as the Cheyenne, like the older Russian Mi-24 Hind helicopter, also served as an armed troop transport.

Currently, as the only aircraft type in the NERV inventory intended for combat and transport, the Cheyennes maybe too weak to stop Angels with conventional means, but at least slow down or distract with missiles before the Evas could finally take a crack at them.

Today Trudy, formerly a US Marine gunship pilot coming from San Diego two years ago, will escort a VIP convoy up to Odawara International Airport as air support. She will also be accompanied by her wingman, Major Paul Nguyen, an old veteran of the Second Korean War. Both were competent gunship jocks, confident in taking on anything daring to cross their path.

The elevator ground to a halt, and immediately a service crew with small tractors began hooking them up to the gunships' nose wheels. Trudy folded her orders and put it into the pocket of her flight suit, and turned to Paul.

"Things are heating up lately," Trudy said, "and I watched CNN today. International Resistance as usual, giving al-Qaeda some competition. The nutcases just blew up a UN office in Nigeria, ambushed a peacekeeper convoy in Bolivia, and took out a UN representative in Kabul. All in a single day."

The International Resistance was the largest anti-UN terrorist group on the planet. Its origins were believed to be in the Northern United States, initially a right-wing Christian fundamentalist terror cell, but after Second Impact their membership grew in numbers, mostly in the US and Europe, after the UN became stronger militarily, fearing the inevitable formation of a "dictatorial world government" and called for "resistance" against all representations of the UN, according to their propaganda materials.

"I hope they don't pull off one of their stunts here in Japan," Paul added. "It's very much of a long shot."

"Yeah. I hope those _putos_ don't come here and carry any PADS or RPGs in their gig," she said. PADS meant Portable Air Defense Systems, such as heat-seeking or laser-guided American Stinger and Russian SA-7 Grail missile launchers, useful for ground troops seeking to destroy enemy aircraft and helicopters. RPGs were Rocket-Propelled Grenades, cheap launchers but just as deadly to slow-flying helicopters.

"In that case, tell the crew chief to load up some chaff and flares into the dispensers, and make sure the ECM is working," Paul suggested. "It's been very long since the last time we're shot at, just like in the old days."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 17: TURNING POINT  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/8/2010 2:34 a6/p6

* * *

Asuka was relieved that her final physical exam was finished, and right now sitting in Doctor Odani's office she was waiting for her medical records to be processed, her college-educated mind busy recalling lines from many books she read, especially the ones that girls of her age fawned over and buying them like crazy.

While the doctor wrote some notes on the girl's medical records, Asuka remembered reading a passage from _Twilight_, where Edward Cullen was talking to Bella Swan, giving cryptic hints about the young vampire's true character: _"What if I'm not a superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?"_

She wondered if this case was also applicable to Kaworu Nagisa.

Even though it was a far-fetched theory, it made the girl shiver, especially after he visited Asuka in her dreams. True, his cerise eyes almost hypnotized her; he had an almost musical voice; he was arrestingly beautiful; and above all, he had a gentle elegance and frankness unusual for his age, possessing aristocratic manners Asuka thought to be long archaic for a hundred or so years. Only the lack of a personal background made Kaworu a mystery boy.

_Who the heck he is?_ Asuka contemplated. _What he's up to down here? Well, even Shinji and Rei don't quite know, and I've yet to ask Misato._

_He doesn't look like a bad guy, but he's too good to be true. Doing seventy-five percent of sync isn't normal. We barely made up to almost fifty-five percent, and that's when nobody's screwing up my test session._

_Is Kaworu doing an Edward Cullen on Rei? I'll never know. He doesn't look like he could harm a fly._

She remembered Hikari's earlier remark on the phone: _"But she's lucky. He must be a prince."_ Asuka snorted and almost chuckled.

_A prince among us,_ she amusedly thought. _A prince wishing to free the frozen Wondergirl._ She then pictured Kaworu, in a cheesy medieval costume and sword in hand, scaling a jagged mountain, and then crashing into a castle, swashbuckling his way through a mob of green Orkish guards, before climbing up a flight of stairs to the top of the tallest tower, kicking the jail door open to see Rei, chained in iron and waiting to be rescued. He broke free the chains from Rei's wrists and feet, before they came down from the castle, the couple riding into the sunset on a white horse. Cue in the ending theme music and the credits.

The redhead was now snickering softly at her own made-up cornball story.

"What are you laughing about?" Natsumi asked, paused in mid-writing.

Asuka gave a wistful grin. "No, nothing, Doc," she said. "Just a funny thought."

Satisfied with the reply, Natsumi resumed work as the redhead contemplated of something else to keep her preoccupied.

Asuka was personally struck by Shinji's new behavior, as if he somehow gained a degree of confidence that wasn't present before. He was talking openly, he was rarely nervous, he didn't have that shaking tic on his right hand, and he reasoned like a human being, instead of the frightened, anxious Shinji she was accustomed to (and shouted at) prior to her downfall.

Well, Asuka now strongly believed that Kaworu had something to do with Shinji's turn-around, probably gave him better self-motivation and courage that the latter never had in his life. She was beginning to like this new-and-improved Shinji, gradually acting more of a man now than a quivering blob of Jell-O, that even Kaji would've been so damn proud.

But she could feel that his father would still never accept him, even as Shinji was slowly gaining a backbone; all she knew was that the elder Ikari was bent on accomplishing a nebulous objective, and all the Children were fighting Angels at his bidding. She then wondered what was on the mind of Commander Ikari, and exactly what the man's motivation and goal to start from almost nothing to a colossal scientific-military complex dedicated to make battle with mysterious giants?

Asuka frowned at one thought about the Commander: because of his obviously cold behavior, was the man a latter-day Doctor Frankenstein?

* * *

Unbeknownst to Asuka and thousands of feet below, Commander Gendo Ikari was spending his time meditating and contemplating, sitting on a concrete levee that rimmed the lake of LCL. He was also staring at Lilith's gigantic form, nailed to a steel cross and leaking LCL from the lower part of her body. Despite the horrific appearance, the bloated white creature was generally harmless, although she appeared to be staring from the eye cutouts of her mask. Already ever since Rei pulled out the Lance of Longinus from Lilith's body, the lower half of her body was slowly beginning to acquire legs, still growing from stumps at this moment.

The construction workers who built this immense chamber from out of Terminal Dogma's earth never knew of Lilith's existence, let alone they were told it was to be a storage area; back then this chamber was an empty space, and Lilith was located in a different place, being used to create the first of the Evas in secret.

Gendo was thinking of the past actions he made, each of them for his own benefit, regardless of who gets hurt. He regretted nothing, save for the loss of his wife, and this traumatic episode occupied his mind since that fateful day.

He pulled a cigarette stick from the pack and lit up, before he returned to his meditation.

All the ingredients he needed were ready to use, but he must wait for the appointed time. The copy of the venerated Secret Dead Sea Scrolls (and Keel Lorenz kept the originals) in his possession were extremely specific: to conquer time, space, matter and life-forces, the practitioner must make the perfect timing. Each incoming Angel since the predicted Second Impact must be killed as sacrifices, and as it was more of a blueprint, every one of those events prophesized by the Scrolls must be accomplished; the practitioner cannot simply leapfrog to the end because that would lead to dire consequences, or so it claimed.

Gendo dragged onto his cigarette and his lips jetted out a cloud of smoke. He then thought of Fuyutsuki's earlier warning about the possibility of a broken prophecy. Instead he grunted contemptuously, believing the Scrolls are infallible ancient knowledge and foresight that no other man would dispute or possess.

After crushing down his cigarette, Gendo then took off one of the gloves that covered Adam, looked at the embryonic creature for a while and then focused his eyes on Lilith. He smiled in pleasure; he knew he would be soon touching Yui's face, provided that Rei was willing to go with him as Lilith's spiritual vessel.

Only Keel Lorenz and SEELE stood in the way, and the damned geriatrics were out to spoil the last lap of his race.

* * *

Misato had decided on eating lunch outside the Pyramid (the popular nickname for the NERV HQ building), and so she, Rei and Kaworu went down to the hidden garden, the boy leading the way as they carried their bento boxes. On the lawn near the gazebo, they sat on and open their lunches.

As they ate, Misato remarked, "This garden's been here for a good reason ever since this place was developed years ago."

"I understand that once in a while anyone can relax here," Kaworu said.

Misato nodded. "That's right," she said before taking in a morsel of rice.

Kaworu turned to Rei, who was quietly eating her vegetarian special. "Have you visited this place?"

"Yes," Rei answered. "I sometimes walk alone."

"I see. Perhaps once in a while you appreciate the beauty of this place. Personally I also like it. Reminds me of a garden—a greenhouse—like this, as I was then growing up. My guardian would take me there and we would talk about anything for hours while he tended the plants."

"Talking about what?" Misato asked.

Kaworu smiled. "Mostly about human nature and life," he said. "Sometimes we also discussed philosophy, or his plants."

"Is it where you also learned about flowers?" Rei asked.

"Yes. He took great care for much of them, as though they were his children." Kaworu then pointed out the beds of flowers coloring the garden.

"Frankly, Kaworu," Misato said, "Sometimes I wondered about your education. Was your guardian a tutor? He sounds amazing."

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, he was once a professor in Hamburg, and in some ways he was like a father to me. He would spend days teaching me, and I had no trouble understanding many things."

"That explains why it's not mentioned in your personal records," she said. "Should've filled out 'self-educated' in the blank."

"However, I still have much to learn."

"Why?" Misato questioned.

"Because personally there are things in our world that I have yet to experience first-hand."

"And while young and free, seize the opportunity," Misato added.

Kaworu grinned. "Well, you're right," he agreed.

A memory welled up onto Misato's mind. "I remember there's Kaji's watermelon patch," she said. "It's a little further from here. Just found it recently after Shinji told me about it. I've been planning to clear out the weeds and water the patch, but I couldn't find the time."

"Maybe I'll try tending it instead," Kaworu suggested.

"Why not? You have enough free time than the usual."

"I see. I think I can do it," Kaworu answered before they all heard Misato's cellphone ringing. She answered the call.

"Yes," she replied.

"It's Odani here. Miss Langley's ready to go, and I'm done with her records."

"Good. I'll wait there at the main hall and pick her up for final processing. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Natsumi said, before hanging up.

After stowing the cellphone back into her pocket, Misato began to pick up the empty bento boxes and put them into a plastic bag. She would dispose the bag into a nearby trash bin. "Looks like we have to go, for you two to say _bon voyage_ to Asuka," she said as they all stood up.

* * *

Shinji was waiting for Asuka outside the shower room. On his feet was the trolley with her box of personal effects. As he waited, listening to Coldplay this time on his SDAT player, he thought of the possible would-haves if she were to stay on, especially when this Angel business ends soon.

As they were now on equal terms, and Shinji had his self-respect this time, once the war concludes on a peaceful note, he would like to spend more time with Asuka, try to get to know each other. He thought of the past, when they were like the opposite ends of the magnet, repelling each other. Fate must be quite a quirky fellow, as from the day they first met on that aircraft carrier; they were forced to work together despite their differences.

Today he now saw Asuka more as a human being, as it was refreshing to hear from her talking normally than before. There was the noticeable absence of her favorite word 'stupid' to describe his vulnerable and hesitant personality, and yet he could still see in her eyes the determination to be a renewed person.

The shower room door opened and Asuka came out, dressed up to go. "Who brought the box to you?" she asked.

"Lieutenant Aoba, the guy at the command center," Shinji said as he rose from his seat, pulling the earphones off.

Asuka nodded. "Ah, the rocker. I should do some sort of a farewell speech, but it sounds corny."

Shinji chuckled lightly. "C'mon, let's get going," he cajoled, while pushing the trolley forward.

* * *

At the heliport, the two NERV Cheyenne gunships were up and running. Trudy Chacon was on the controls along with her back-seat co-pilot, and a quartet of Section Two agents in black fatigues boarded in from the rear ramp, with one as a sniper and another as a spotter at the open side door, while the remaining two carried submachine guns, sitting on the webbed seats. On her left Paul Nguyen's gunship already began to take off, without agents onboard, so she called up the air traffic controller.

"Control, this is Hammer Two, we're ready," she said into the radio.

"Roger that, Hammer Two, you're cleared to go," the ATC answered.

Trudy began to pull up her left collective stick to increase thrust, while her right hand steadied the cyclic stick for a vertical takeoff. Her Cheyenne screamed skywards, before she slowly pushed forward at 400 feet, swooping over the heliport.

Once they were in the air, high above Lake Ashinoko, Trudy said over the cabin intercom, "This is your captain speaking, on behalf of NERV Airlines. Heads up and eyes peeled, you guys. This ain't an exercise today, because any moment it could be the real deal."

"Roger, we copy that," the spotter said.

Trudy squirmed on her seat, trying to be comfortable. Her eyes were on the armament panel, and she checked if the safeties were off. She then drew her attention to the navigational systems, in full display. Now Trudy put the gunship into a holding racetrack pattern, waiting for the convoy that she and Paul must look after.

"Anyone there wishing for some airline peanuts?" she quipped, and the rest of the crew laughed in response.

* * *

At the Eva holding cages, Asuka gazed at Unit-02 and sighed. The red-orange Eva, sitting in a vast tank of cooling refrigerant, stared down with its four yellow eyes. She seemed to be a bit distraught at Asuka's departure, but her former owner wanted to at least give a final look and contemplate.

"For three years, I studied every inch of her," Asuka said to Shinji, who was standing besides her, leaning on the guard rail. "Read the specifications, memorized the power requirements. Even gone so far as to learn the subsystems so that I could tune it in the field."

"I see," Shinji said, nodding.

"There's a terminal in the Entry Plug where I could enter commands to configure the computer, and adjust the way the Eva responds to me. While on tests I would keep on tweaking, and of course there's some programming that I'm not allowed to touch, such as Mode D."

The redhead closed her eyes.

"It's been a very long way since I met you on the first day," she said. "You were so damned shy back then, a true wuss."

"And you were like a big shot, too," Shinji added. "Like you're imitating Paris Hilton."

"Yeah," Asuka agreed. "All along while we fought the Angel you were wearing my suit, the carrier's captain looked shitfaced, and by the time we came to port, your pals were laughing their asses off." She then chuckled.

"Sorry me," Shinji said, shaking his head. "At least we won, Kensuke got his wish, and… you know what I mean."

Asuka cocked an eye at him. "What?"

Shinji didn't want to tell her that her exposed panties nearly caused Toji's eyes to fall off, and he received a solid stomping from her as payment. "N… Nothing," he said sheepishly. "Except you know what you did to Toji."

"That blockhead… Anyway," Asuka said, "As for that Eva of yours, I suppose you have to watch out with whatever she does. She's damned wild." The girl pointed a finger at Unit-01, also soaked in a vat of refrigerant, always with that fearsome look.

Shinji sighed. "I know, and she probably knows as well," he answered.

There was one thing she must do, and Asuka pulled out her Nokia cellphone to take a picture of the Eva right before her. She aimed the camera and took a snap.

"That's the last time I'll be seeing you," Asuka said at the silent Eva, smiling sadly as she pocketed the phone. "Goodbye," she added. "Auf Wiedersehen."

* * *

At the main hall, Shinji and Asuka were waiting, sitting on a bench and her laden trolley besides, when Misato, Kaworu and Rei walked towards them, emerging from the crowd of NERV employees. The redhead stood up from her seat and mumbled, "Misato?"

"Finally, I'm glad to see you again!" Misato exclaimed before they hugged and laughed.

"Sorry about everything," Asuka apologized. "I'm so sorry!"

Misato nodded as they let go. "It's okay, I really understand. I know how much you've gone through. Tell me, how do you two kiss and make up?"

Shinji and Asuka blinked twice. It was one hell of a bombshell question, as everyone knows that they're called the "married couple".

"Make up? Yes," Asuka answered, blushing furiously. "Kiss? _No, _absolutely not," she denied. "But the good news is–"

Asuka and Shinji each took a breath and then said in unison, "_Everything's settled!_"

Relieved at seeing them together, Kaworu turned to Rei and smiled softly, as if to say silently that all's well ends well. Rei nodded slightly in response.

Misato now put her hands on the waist, looked at Asuka and said, "Okay, we'll have to file your discharge. Have to make it quick before you catch the flight out of here."

It took about ten minutes for Asuka to get her papers completed at the Personnel Department, and once they all walked out of the building, standing on the steps she said, "Guess it's going to be bygones to be bygones. Wondergirl…"

"Yes?" Rei said.

"I thank you for everything," Asuka admitted, before hugging Rei for the first time. The First Children blinked, surprised at the gesture. "In the end, you turned out to be a good girl. I appreciate you for trying to open my eyes. I owe you much for saving my life after the Angel attacked me."

"Thank you, Pilot Soryu." Rei was blushing slightly. "I also accept your apology."

"Correction, Rei, it's just plain Asuka to you." She then made a wistful smile and let go of Rei.

Rei bowed. "That would be very acceptable," she said.

Asuka focused her attention to Kaworu. "And you, thanks for your advice. I'll remember," she said. "Take care of Unit Two."

"My pleasure," Kaworu said, bowing his head. "I'll do my best."

The Audi just arrived in time, parked at the curb, and Agent Kanzaki came out to open the doors for them. He also popped open the trunk to load Asuka's box inside, before they all, save for Rei and Kaworu, entered the sedan.

"Take care of yourself," Kaworu said aloud as he waved his hand.

As the Audi pulled away, Asuka waved her hand at the two Children standing there, before she let the window close. The Audi motored out of the curb and once the car disappeared at a turn, Kaworu looked to Rei and said, "It's time to go. I'll be walking behind you."

Rei nodded. "Yes, I understand. Be my guest," she said, but smiled softly.

* * *

While the linear train went up aboveground, Asuka held up what was left of her ID card, now punctured with five big holes and two stamps invalidating the card with the words "Discharged / Medical".

"That's the last of it," she wryly remarked, before pocketing the punched card into her jeans.

"Reminds me of the first time Shinji tried to quit," Misato said. "He ran away, then Section Two caught up with him, got formally kicked out, and it was only when I finally understood the hedgehog's dilemma, I was able to stop Shinji from leaving."

"What's that?"

"If I can remember correctly, 'the nearer he gets, the deeper he hurts others'. Back then he wasn't able to express himself with words."

Asuka nodded. "I see," she said before focusing her attention to Shinji. She asked, "Why do you have to stay?"

Shinji sighed. "I have to," he said. "Nobody else can handle Unit One, I think. Besides, I still want to be useful."

Asuka grunted. "So much for those crappy compatibility tests," she railed. "Turns out you can impress an Eva, provided you ride long enough until she gets used to you. Like taking care and riding a horse."

The linear train stopped at the ground station, and the Audi rolled out. Kanzaki pulled to the right, drove out of the tunnel to stop at a security checkpoint.

"Um… I'd like to ask you something," Shinji said, a bit hesitant.

Asuka cocked an eye. "Yes?"

Shinji watched Kanzaki show his ID card to the sentry. "What does your stepmother do for a living?"

The redhead sighed. "Oh, Marlene's a doctor, basically, sticking with the old man. Tries to be friendly with me, but before she married him, she was already his mistress."

Shinji nodded. "Ah, I see. That explains why you're sometimes upset with them."

Misato opened the window and was talking to the sentry, showing him some papers. They were probably written orders, Shinji guessed from the look of them.

"I also have a half-sister," Asuka said. "Melissa's a couple of years older than me, and looks geeky."

"Are you still okay with her?"

Asuka shrugged. "I don't know, but back then I kept my distance from her. Compared to me, she's normal but doesn't want to pick a fight. Almost like Rei, because she's quiet."

"And what are you going to do if you meet your family again?"

Once the barrier was lifted, Kanzaki thanked the sentry, before he closed the windows and the Audi pulled away. Asuka looked away.

"Guess I'll tell them I want to start a new beginning," she said. "Settle things right and try to get along."

* * *

Somewhere in a clearing high on Hakone's wooded foothills, the killer was watching, through his binoculars, the Audi drive past the NERV checkpoint, before it was joined by two Pajeros and a pair of Humvees with swivel-mounted machine guns. Orbiting above the convoy was a pair of gunships, but to combat those gunships, he had his crew arm themselves with portable heat-seeking SA-7 Grail missiles, smuggled from out of Pakistan by way of a drug-running cargo ship. The light vehicles can be easily dealt with using cheap anti-tank RPG launchers and roadside bombs, as with their use in Iraq and Afghanistan, where loose munitions were plentiful.

Earlier the killer's crew convened for the last time, in an abandoned warehouse in Odawara. They planned the attack, dividing themselves into separate teams to deal with specific targets in the convoy. As they discussed the plan, the killer was personally amused by the diversity of the fanatics he hired for the job, men with differing nationalities, faiths and ideologies, some bordering on the extreme. They were all competent shots, with previous military or terrorist experience yet disillusioned with their respective governments. Despite a volatile mixture of leftists, rightists, religious fundamentalists, nationalists and anarchists, their common hatred was against the United Nations, including its subsidiary agencies, such as the World Trade Organization and NERV.

The killer picked up his radio, calling the first team, positioned in the abandoned hot-spa hamlet of Miyogino, east of the convoy's position, to get ready.

"Alpha, prepare to go. Target Red is on your way on Route 138," he said. "They're two clicks away from your position. Five of them on the ground, and two birds. Two SUVs, two Humvees and one black Audi in the middle. Watch out for the birds."

"Roger that, Alpha's ready," the other man on the frequency confirmed.

"Bravo team, ready," another chimed in.

"Charlie team, ready," a third spoke up.

"Lock and load," the killer answered them back. "Leave nobody alive except for the red-haired bitch. She's mine, and I'll finish her myself."

* * *

In the elevator, with Rei keeping herself quiet, Kaworu remembered about the daily walks in the garden with his guardian, Keel Lorenz. He recalled one of their moments between student and teacher, as the old man lectured:

"_Son," Keel said. "The time has arrived for you to fulfill your destiny. You have finally come of age."_

_Kaworu nodded, as he let his gaze wander at the vast number of greenery surrounding them. "Thank you, sir," he answered._

_The garden, or rather a huge greenhouse, was lit with sunlight gathered from the solar condenser blocks, as it was located underground. Thanks to a blue-painted vault spanning over the greenhouse, it gave one an impression that he was outside. Insects and small birds abound, with butterflies hovering, all part of a working ecosystem to make this slice of nature believable. Temperature and humidity was controlled by computer, and it was slightly sweltering enough that Keel removed his coat, content to be walking with a shirt and suspenders keeping his pants on._

"_Now listen to me," Keel said. The old man coughed, before he continued. "For years, I sought to find an answer to all of humanity's greatest problems, but in the process I found that humans are susceptible to all evils, no matter the efforts of some who wanted to build a better society, an idealistic utopia, so as to speak. For one, some of them are stubborn, some wanted change and others wanted constancy. The individualism and weaknesses of men hampered the creation of utopias, which by this time are becoming irrelevant, a laughable folly."_

"_All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity," Kaworu said, quoting Nietzsche from one of his books. _

"_An appropriate description," Keel approved. "Instead of reconciling themselves over their own mistakes made through millennia, men continue to wage wars, seek profit and power, subjugate his fellow man, satisfy his lust, rape and defile Mother Nature, and the poisons of imperfection continue to corrode humanity. Everything comes and goes, even empires and societies, but I have yet to see something that can outlast all of men's creations."_

"_And that's your reason why you want me there," Kaworu said._

_Keel smiled. "Precisely, young man. Realizing that humanity right now is facing inevitable doom, we sought the first-hand documented wisdom of the ancients, to remake this wretched world as we see it fit. After much study, we have learned how important you are. You have this power, but to utilize it we must learn about its use and potential abuse. I understand that you are teaching yourself how to manipulate your AT Field, is it correct?"_

"_I'm trying, sir. It takes some concentration to use it, and so far I learned how to create a shield or levitate."_

"_I know, but use that wisely, son," Keel reminded, upholding a finger in caution. "Don't let anyone discover it once you get there, even if you're capable of shielding the core of your strength. Make one slip, and you will die before you could even reach your destination."_

"_I am aware of its potential for danger, sir."_

_The old man sighed. "My life is at its nearest end, and so is the world humans exist on. Man has reached a certain point where there will be no more to spare, as he consumes everything in its path and then spits out the refuse, while corrupting himself. But this is the right time to begin anew, where all life must be returned to the first form, to become pure and sacred."_

_Keel leaned close enough into Kaworu's face, as if he wanted to make a point. "Son, the Scrolls have spoken. The time is ripe. I have prepared you long enough to begin your journey, a journey for our salvation to create a true utopia."_

The elevator finally halted, and both Children walked out. After they made it through the gate and out into the open, and as he gazed at the clear blue sky, Kaworu said, "I hope they make it there."

* * *

Tsutomo leisurely tapped on the steering wheel as the car stereo played Angela Aki's music, while Misato's eyes scanned the road ahead of them, their ears kept open for their communications radio. Right in front the first two escort vehicles were just as alert as they were, for it was no time for sightseeing despite the gorgeous scenery they passed by. At the backseat Shinji and Asuka were engaged in small talk about themselves.

"Things have changed now," Tsutomo said, remarking at the surprisingly empty road. "A few months back this highway was clogged with some tourists, even as we had these Angel attacks. There's no more today, everyone's fleeing for their lives; they're real scared."

"That's unfortunately right," Misato agreed. "Except down south, the whole valley's practically deserted."

Tsutomo pursed his lips for a second. "You know what, ma'am, what I am looking forward to?"

Misato cocked an eye. "What?"

Tsutomo grinned. "Tomorrow, I'm taking Doctor Odani out for a date," he admitted. "In downtown Odawara."

"Her? She looks hard to get."

Tsutomo shook his head. "You're wrong, ma'am. Been talking to Natsumi sometimes, asking if she's available, and she then said she's trying to find time. But tomorrow's her day-off."

Misato chuckled. "Ah, you're so lucky, trying to catch up before you hit the big three-oh," she said, but inside her heart felt a pang, missing her days with Kaji.

"I have to, while I'm young," Tsutomo said, "After this one, if this war ends on a peaceful note, I'm also going back as a country cop. Run a little rural _koban_, go walking on patrols, traffic management, and drag drunks home at night, you know, just like a sheriff."

Misato cocked an eye. "Where? Here in Hakone?"

Tsutomo nodded, smiling. "Yeah, to be honest I love this place, although I miss the cherry blossoms. Nothing like it in the whole world. I also love simple things… and what about you? Where you'll be when all this shit ends?"

As they were approaching Miyogino, Misato pondered for a second. "Me? Oh, yeah, become a teacher instead. Swords to plowshares... I'd like to rebuild society, and give something back for the future."

"Not bad, ma'am," Tsutomo remarked. "But as good advice, we have to consider the reality of–"

An orange fireball erupted right before their eyes, and the Humvee up in front was suddenly thrown aloft by the shock of the explosion, tumbling sideward, doors ajar and everything in it flung out, before crashing into the façade of an abandoned food stall. The blast's shockwave hit the car, pounding it for a second, rendering the occupants nearly deaf. Instantly the radio waves were alive with shocked admonitions, curses and calls for help.

Everyone was taken by surprise.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Tsutomo yelled, yanking the steering wheel to the right, slaloming in tight turns. "KEEP GOING! KEEP GOING!" he screamed into the radio, as he stepped on the gas and went past the fallen Humvee, now exploding into flames and smoke. Misato, Shinji and Asuka were instantly pushed hard to the back of their seats by the quick acceleration.

"Dammit, who the hell hit us?" Misato shouted, pulling out her USP automatic pistol.

"Dunno!" Tsutomo shot back, shifting gears while clenching his teeth, muttering profanities and imprecations by the dozen.

They made it through, but after the initial attack the convoy was pelted by a hail of gunfire coming from the window of a vacant house. Starry cracks appeared on the Audi's windshield, and he thought he saw from the rear view mirror another Pajero blasted off the road, probably with an RPG. Tsutomo ordered on the radio, "Hammer One! Hammer One! This is Red One, can you hear me, over? We're taking fire! I repeat, we're taking heavy fire! We have hostiles!"

* * *

The two orbiting gunships saw the fireballs, and then the tracers. Trudy Chacon was right; the IR was finally taking names on Japanese soil. Both pilots immediately armed their weapons and countermeasures, and peered into their HUDs for targeting information. The radio was alive with cries for help, and Command back there on the frequency, demanding what was going on.

"Roger, Red One, this is Hammer One, we have a visual on your situation, over." It was Paul Nguyen, who was going in with guns ready.

"Hammer One, this is Two, I have visual on an enemy position they just passed by," Trudy chimed in. "Roadside house with red roof. There's a muzzle flash and RPG fire in one of the windows. I'm painting the hostiles."

"Confirmed that. Take them out, you're cleared to engage!" Paul answered.

"Roger that. Doom on them."

Trudy pulled the trigger on her stick, firing away a laser-guided Hellfire missile, and once more with a volley of Hydras straight at the hostile position. The house, along with two terrorists inside, was instantly demolished in a cloud of splinters, roofing tiles and fire. She completed the destruction by firing a burst of cannon shells at the burning wreck.

* * *

In the Audi, Shinji's heart rate rapidly climbed as he panicked, fear eating him in an instant as the grim reality of being ambushed has taken over everyone in the car. His eyes darted around, desperately trying to look for shelter, unaware that the car itself was completely armored. They could hear the thud of bullets hitting the car's rear.

"Thanks guys, keep up the pressure! I gotta make an alternate detour, over," Tsutomo said to the two gunships via radio, before swerving the car to a hard right, tearing through the center of Gora, the town now deserted completely.

"W… What's happening?" Shinji demanded, completely shaken, watching Misato trying to get the car's sunroof opened.

"We're being ambushed!" Asuka added, almost agitated. "We have to get out of here!"

"I KNOW! Stay put, just stay put, you kids!" Misato roared at the frightened Children. "Now try opening the backseat there! There's supposed to be some guns inside."

Asuka and Shinji pulled the backseat off, and they found a pair of Heckler and Koch UMP45 submachine guns with red dot tactical sights. Being the supposed expert, Asuka immediately unsheathed one and handed it over to Misato, along with two spare ammunition clips. Misato slammed a clip and pulled the cocking handle.

"Then give me the vest right there!" Misato ordered, pointing at what appeared to be body armor. Shinji furiously tugged at a black ceramic-fiber vest with trauma plates, hefted it to Misato, who began strapping it around her body. The woman then took a deep breath, even as the car was making more than 100 kilometers per hour on these mountain roads, and these aren't just any ordinary mountain roads—this was _Hakone_, a drift racer's holy land. The danger here, however, was present in the form of cliff-side drops up to a hundred meters, with some stretches of road having flimsy side rails and crash barriers.

"Kanzaki, do you think you could hack those curves ahead of us?" Misato asked, as she picked up a rubber band in a holder on the central console, and used it to tie her hair. She could hear the howling slipstream from the opened sunroof.

"Well, yes… I used to be drifting here back when I was in college," Tsutomo answered rapidly. "Owned a Nissan Silvia, in fact!" he gasped.

Misato stared at Tsutomo for a split-second. She had a sudden, newfound respect for this man, a gearhead like her, and a true road warrior.

"Then make the best of what you know!" she commanded, before sticking her head out of the sunroof.

Turning towards the back for a favorable firing position, she could see one of their escort Pajeros swerve and crash into the hillside, its occupants probably riddled by bullets streaming from an oncoming Subaru Impreza sedan, whose ski-masked shooters had their bodies half-exposed and hanging out of the windows, firing away with their guns.

"Okay, ma'am, HANG ON TIGHT!" Tsutomo warned aloud, causing Shinji and Asuka to strap on their seatbelts, and keep holding for dear life.

Even as she heard bullets cracking through the air, Misato steadied herself and the submachine gun on the roof, amidst the side-G forces pulling her left and right, snapped the safety to Burst, sighted the Impreza through the targeting dot and fired.

* * *

Unaware of the exploding chaos several kilometers away, Kaworu walked behind Rei as they entered her flat, the door creaking slightly.

Immediately the squalor inside struck him; it was nothing like what he had previously seen through Rei's mind. Kaworu could smell the mustiness of Rei's home as they went inside, passing through the small kitchenette. He paused, taking note of her stove, the rice cooker and the airpot. The sink was full of empty bento boxes; apparently she neglected to take them out.

He recalled what Shinji remembered about asking before making his first time visiting Rei:

_Shinji was feeling doubtful, looking at Rei's ID card in his hands. "It's weird that I know so little about Ayanami, even though she's an Eva pilot just like me," he said._

_Ritsuko shrugged, tabling her Cup Noodles on the coffee table. "She's basically a good girl though. Like your father, she's not good at..." she said, but trailed off._

"_She's not good at what?" Shinji asked, badgering the lady doctor to finish._

"_Living," Ritsuko concluded._

"Is this how you live?" Kaworu asked, having a bit of a double-take.

Rei nodded. "Yes."

The ceiling had a slight case of mildew, with a clothes hanger suspended above the girl's utilitarian hospital bed; while the paneled walls were devoid of any decoration, save for a mirror. The thick curtains kept light away coming from the veranda doors, and in the middle of the room was a stool. To the right was a small refrigerator, with a plastic bag on the side overflowing with wrappers and empty cans of Calorimate, a high-calorie snack bar and drink, and beside that was a box full of bloodied bandages, aged and spangled with cobwebs. On top of the refrigerator were Rei's medications.

He took note of the labels on the jars and the pill blister packs (one was labeled "Growth Control Compound 3910", and another with "Enzyme 420B"); they don't seem to look like they came from a drugstore except for the kanji, which told him that Ritsuko Akagi was her personal physician.

The place was wretched enough to make an ordinary girl feel depressed.

"What are those books?" Kaworu queried, pointing at the stack of books on the cabinet, the pages inserted with bookmarks; the spindles never had a title on them.

"These?" Rei wondered as she walked over and picked up one of the books, opening to a page.

Kaworu nodded. "Well, yes."

"Most of them are about bioengineering, genetics, molecular biology…" Rei explained. "Those subjects that the Commander and Doctor Akagi were interested in. I read them in order to understand what they were discussing and working on."

"That explains," Kaworu dryly remarked, before his attention was drawn to the box of spent bandages. "What about that box there?" he asked.

Rei turned her attention to Kaworu. "I was injured many months ago, on the day before Ikari arrived. I was to dispose of the bandages, but instead set them aside as a reminder."

Kaworu murmured almost quietly, but then he saw what looked like an eyeglass case, also on top of the cabinet. "Whose glasses are those?"

The blue-haired girl picked up the case and opened it, showing the glasses inside, which were shattered. "They once belonged to the Commander," Rei said. "I also kept them after he rescued me… His hands were burned as he tried to open the Entry Plug, which is why he wore gloves from that day."

Rei closed the case and placed them back on top of the cabinet. The girl sighed. "I once used to look up at him; I owed him for that act, a gesture of his concern for me."

Kaworu rubbed his chin. "I wondered if you still know more about him, but I think you already said that you have little idea of his true personality."

"That is true," she said, nodding. "He reveals little of himself."

"Again, it's so strange that you were close to him yet you don't understand what he truly is," Kaworu remarked.

* * *

From her position on the sunroof, Misato cheered for a second as she saw one of the terrorists drop his weapon, after she shot him through the windshield, but she needed to take out the driver. She adjusted her aim, beading to the right of the Impreza, and then fired. But the pursuing driver quickly veered left, dodging Misato's bullets, while the Audi was receiving more pockmarks on its rear.

_Damn fuck!_ She cursed, but she had to make every bullet count; she guessed she had about forty-five rounds left in both UMP magazines, and then her USP and two spare 12-round clips, but she wasn't sure how big the opposition was; like cockroaches, if there's one of those terrorists, it's possible they were up against more of them.

_How much these thugs were paid to kill Asuka?_ She wondered, the big sister in her heart enraged. _I don't know she's… and possibly Shinji are such big targets!_

Just as she was about to take aim again, the Impreza was already coming under heavy fire from Paul Nguyen's gunship; bullets from his chain gun were coming after the car, leaving a wake of dirt geysers, and then one round hit the roof and killed an IR gunner inside.

From his cockpit, Paul was getting annoyed with the Impreza's tendency to slalom in and out of his aim, and so he switched to his Hellfire missiles and got a lock-on, then fired away, before watching the Impreza a few seconds later disintegrate into almost nothing but flaming steel and smoke.

"YEAH! That's how you do it!" Misato yelled, her adrenaline surging and a fist upraised, as she delightedly waved at Paul's Cheyenne screaming past by, but then she was shocked to see a tell-tale smoke trail of a missile from the forest reach out for the gunship, the aircraft popping flares and making a sharp bank to the right.

The missile exploded among the smoking flares, but not before a second one was launched from the same location on the ground. This time it hit too near Paul's starboard engine, spraying shrapnel and tearing off the turbine blades and hydraulics, causing the gunship to fall off the sky, forcing him and his co-pilot to eject before the stricken Cheyenne crashed into the mountain, followed by a greasy fireball over the evergreen forest.

Misato was appalled; she was wondering where the second gunship was.

* * *

Two kilometers away, Trudy Chacon saw her wingman come down after the missile hit him. Cursing, she quickly went down close to the deck, almost 200 feet in the air and hugging the terrain, trying to find where the terrorists were firing the missiles. Find them wherever they are, then pay it in spades.

She remembered her uncle, who used to be a Cobra gunship pilot back in the Vietnam War, and regaled her with tales of strafing attacks upon the Vietcong in the Highlands; troops always called them a godsend, the wrath of God with rotor blades. Back then the only problem he encountered were anti-aircraft machine guns, and he would come back to base with some bullet holes on the chopper's fuselage.

But Trudy was up against a very sophisticated enemy, the kind that can hit-and-run with cheap weapons and smarts, then weasel out before the good guys could catch up with them. Terrorists—and guerilla freedom fighters—possessed a unique flexibility, mobility and tenacity no standing army could hope to match.

Her eyes now scanned the ground, seeking out potential threats but wary of more enemy missiles, and she was trying to find the lone Audi S4 somewhere down there, fighting for survival.

* * *

The dozen IR terrorists, victorious in taking down the Cheyenne with their Grail missiles, quickly boarded two of their pickup trucks, both stolen, then gunned the engines and tore up the tree-lined dirt road leading to the main highway. They have to intercept the fleeing Audi and, if possible, capture their prized target. The killer promised a large bounty if they brought Asuka alive, plus an added bonus if they killed the Evangelion Tactical Operations Manager or any high-ranking NERV officer on sight.

In any case, their first foray in Japan would be a propaganda boost, telling the UN that the International Resistance will strike anywhere it wishes.

* * *

Shinji was shaking, almost deafened by the roar of gunfire, despite the assurance of the car's safety as Tsutomo tried his best to lose their pursuers. He was regressing into his former behavior of cowardice when Asuka took notice and asked angrily, "Are you afraid?"

"I don't know!" the young man shot back. "I don't know why we're being shot at! They'll gonna kill us all!"

"But Misato's doing it all for us!" Asuka yelled, completely agitated by the chaos. "I thought you could get a grip, I thought you want to change yourself, but why the fuck are you shaking? Why are you cowering? That's what I HATE about you! YOU WIMP, CAN'T YOU SNAP OUT OF IT?"

Asuka's last sentence was like a bomb going off in Shinji's head, the word "hate" triggering an unexpected reaction in his psyche. Images of things that he feared quickly flashed in his mind, and something cold slithering his insides:

_Father, cold, indifferent and unmoving. Unit-01 pulverizing what was left of Unit-03. The Angel with ribbon-razor arms, hovering over a decapitated Unit-02. The face of Unit-01, with its horrific unmasked visage… A hundred Reis cut into pieces, floating in the tank. Kaji, with his body splayed out, crimson staining the concrete under him. Then Misato slumped on the floor, motionless, a spatter of blood on the wall behind her…_

_Finally, a lifeless Asuka, mouth agape and her body soaked in a tub full of red-colored water. Her arm jutted out, a wrist slashed open and dripping blood._

_No. Not again.  
I don't want to die.  
I don't want everyone to die. I don't want to see the people I love die.  
I had enough!  
I have to fight for this love! This friendship! The relations! The things that make me whole!  
I DON'T WANT TO RUN AWAY!_

Suddenly Shinji stopped shaking; he bolted upright, and then unfastened his seat belt.

"What are you doing?" Asuka demanded.

Shinji now looked real angry. "I have to do something right!" he answered aloud, pulling the backseat forward and took out the other submachine gun, which in his hands looked large and unwieldy. He also remembered Kensuke's voice, as both boys were huddled around the campfire, his first night after he ran away from Misato:

"_This, my friend, is a UMP45 submachine gun," Kensuke said, hefting the airsoft replica weapon. "The real thing carries 30 rounds of .45 caliber bullets, a foregrip, and has an accessory rail for scopes, laser pointers or tac lights. Do you want to learn how to use it?" he asked._

_In the flickering light of the campfire, Kensuke was wearing an olive-drab shirt and a surplus pair of Self-Defense Force camo fatigues. Because they looked ill-fitting and big, he looked more of a child conscript than the soldier he imagined to be._

_Shinji looked meek. "Sure… I don't quite understand guns."_

_Kensuke grinned. "Good, you're lucky to be here so keep your eyes and ears open. Now if you want to use it, first make sure the breech's empty…" _

_Shinji nodded. "Uh, huh," he agreed, listening carefully._

"_Then you put the magazine in," Kensuke added, picking up the clip from the ground and inserting it into the magazine hold. "Pull the cocking handle, and switch from Safety to Single-Shot or Burst or Full-Auto. See that?" The military buff pulled back the handle on the side and, showing it to Shinji, thumb the safety to fire._

"_Ah… I get it."_

"_Now should you run empty, press the magazine release just below, and then slap in a fresh clip, before cocking once more. This is called reloading." _

_Kensuke then demonstrated the simple procedure of changing the ammo clip, then pulling the cocking handle. He also showed how to remove the round from the chamber and set the safety back in so that there's no accidental firing._

"_And that's how it works?" Shinji asked._

_Kensuke nodded. "Right, it's just simple. I'm hoping that what you learn from me might come in handy someday, especially if you're in a military organization like NERV."_

_Shinji merely shrugged. "I'll never know."_

Now he realized that the unforeseen _someday_ was _today_, Shinji pulled the handle, a round inserted into the chamber with a hard snap, and thumbed off the safety.

Asuka was shocked at his act of defiance. "Are you _mad_ this time?"

But Shinji, after kicking the backseat into its place, stared at Asuka with determined eyes. He took a breath, fighting not to hyperventilate.

"NO, I WANT TO PROTECT YOU THIS TIME!" he declared, correcting her.

Stunned, Asuka was instantly speechless.

Stone-faced, Shinji then turned away, pressing down the power window switch in the armrest, lowering the clear-aluminum-matrix window, and he stuck his body out along with the weapon. The wind was screaming in his ears, he could hear his heartbeat, the adrenaline was rushing, yet the rage was burning as he saw the two pickup trucks came to meet them at a forked junction, guns blazing.

The young man shook his head, wishing Kensuke was here so that he could thank him for that little piece of military education, so Shinji clenched his jaw, pray that the recoil was no more different from a Pallet Assault Rifle, sighted his target and fired at the nearest pickup.

_Aim at the target in the center, and then switch!_

Not expecting Shinji to come out into the fight, one of the terrorists was instantly shot and flung off the truck bed, screaming as he and his assault rifle hit the pavement. Then a lucky spray from the boy shattered the truck's windshield, two rounds killing the driver and wounding another in the passenger seat. The truck then swerved, and collided with a huge boulder jutting out into the road's shoulder; the remaining terrorists were tossed off the truck bed as it pitched forward in the crash.

As she was dealing with the second pickup, Misato was surprised, wondering who took out the first one. She peered down to see Shinji wielding a submachine gun.

"For Chrissakes, what the hell you're doing?" she demanded. "Don't you know you could get killed?"

"I know what I'm doing!" Shinji shot back, taking aim and letting out a burst. "I don't care if anything happens to me or I have to kill a bad guy! I want to help you all! I want us all to make it through this and live! I don't want to be alone!"

"WHAT?" Misato yelled while pulling the trigger.

Shinji didn't want to be distracted, concentrating his firepower at the enemy, still shooting in bursts and empty shells flinging away from the ejection port.

"Running away isn't an option! I know now what I'm fighting for!" he raged at the top of his lungs, "I want to live! I want you all to live! I'm taking responsibility today, AND ASUKA IS MY RESPONSIBILITY!"

His statement astonished Misato down to the bone. _How the hell Shinji got a new pair of steel balls?_

* * *

Rei was halfway through preparing their tea, as the kettle began to boil and whistle. She remembered the first time Shinji tutored her on how to do it the correct way, after he saw her spoon too much Earl Grey from the tin.

As she put the right amount of tea into a glass strainer, she watched Kaworu pick up the empty bento boxes and placed them into a plastic bag.

"I apologize if I neglected about cleaning," she remarked. "I was spending most of my time at the Geofront."

"It's okay," Kaworu said. "I understand that the Commander considers you very important." He tied the open end of the filled plastic bag into a knot and set it down onto the floor.

From the cupboard, Rei took out a pair of cheap coffee mugs she purchased with her own money, and then placed them on the counter, before she took the kettle and poured hot water into the strainer. The strainer would soak and let the tea drip and settle in the bottom half.

"I have said earlier that I doubted the Commander," Rei said.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I know."

"Yesterday as we were standing before him, I sense a coldness coming from the Commander."

"So do I," Kaworu agreed. "Did you notice why his glasses were colored?"

"Why?"

"Because he's hiding his true feelings, controlling himself throughout the time we faced him. He's wearing a mask, while keeping his distance. Most eyes can't lie."

The First Children picked up the strainer and then poured the tea into both mugs. Rei gave one to Kaworu, and she picked up her mug, before they walked over to her bed and sat down.

Kaworu took a sip of his own, and sighed contentedly. "You learned well, Rei," he remarked after a moment. "Honestly, it's probably the best tea I ever had."

"Thank you," Rei answered after she drank.

"Well… I have something to admit to you," Kaworu said. "I hope you would also understand me, so listen carefully."

Rei nodded. "I will," she accepted.

Using the stool as a table, Kaworu placed his mug on top of it and took a breath. He managed a swallow of his throat, before he spoke.

"Ever since I locked lips with you when I rescued you, to give you my breath," he said calmly, "I have this strange feeling, this feeling in my heart that I have never experienced in my whole life. I could not describe it at first, but after I looked for its meaning and found it, I realized what this feeling truly was."

Rei blinked for a moment, but Kaworu was staring at her, a pair of red eyes meeting another. She laid down her mug onto the stool and placed hands on her lap.

"Before that, when I first looked at your picture, I wondered. I saw your unfeeling, something you lost. And when I was face to face with you for the first time, I was concerned about your sorrow, you were then afraid, and your eyes were pleading for help. Eventually, I fell for you."

Kaworu sighed for a moment.

"People always feel pain in their hearts," he said, his heart throbbing, "but they also feel happiness as well. Easy to wound as life is painful… yet could also be healed, too." Kaworu pursed his lips, the first time he felt nervous after being so confident throughout his life.

"Rei Ayanami… You are like a flower, a rose, fragile and vulnerable… It's the same with your heart, just as fragile. I want to protect and take care of that rose, and I have a reason why it has to be you."

"Me?" Rei spoke, a chord struck in her heart. She never heard anything like this from a person, yet she slowly watched Kaworu lean closer, his eyes soft this time.

"You're worthy of love… That's the right word for this feeling," he whispered.

"W… What is love?" Rei asked, not knowing the word before.

"Love is one caring for another," Kaworu explained slowly, "communicating with each other, reciprocation between souls… with affection, trust and respect, and opening hearts and minds." He then patted his chest softly where his beating heart was, to make a point.

The idea dawning upon her, Rei was open-mouthed. "I comprehend you now," she said softly.

Slowly Kaworu took hold of Rei's hand, and then cradled and caressed it as though the petals of a rose. He took a breath as he felt the emotions coming from her rush into him; he wanted to say the right words, and he knew now what she was feeling at the moment.

The moment was right. Rei kept herself still, waiting for him.

"Which is why I must say," he said and paused for a second. "I love you."

And Kaworu slowly began to kiss Rei on the lips.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** After some thoughts doing this, I was trying to see how Shinji would react to, say, in a more personal life-or-death/fight-or-flight situation, as I wanted him to answer this question: _"What are you going to do when someone's about to kill you?"_

Because such unusual behavior could result in a possible OOC, after I studied his personality in detail, I added some reasons and a catalyst for him to make an about-face, to confront a very grave situation, especially when it's his life and others are at stake. Due to his nature, if he's pushed beyond what he could psychologically handle, he would resort to drastic actions that are normally not his thing, such as blind, violent rage (consider the quarreling scene between him and Asuka in EOE).

On the other hand, after seventeen chapters Kaworu and Rei now have their chance here. Why so long? Character development is the key, and a character slowly changes his attitude over time, along with relationship development between characters. Again, it takes so much of effort to get into the shoes of the characters and their feelings.

Whatever the case, I hope some people would appreciate the alterations occurring in this chapter, as it's not an easy task handling the Children and their personalities.

This chapter is dedicated to Alain "Rakna" Gravel and the first generation of Evafic writers. I salute!


	18. Kisses & Bullets

For Rei Ayanami, it was a very strange sensation as Kaworu Nagisa kissed her. She was completely disoriented at first, but otherwise she felt free, her heart soaring higher like she never experienced before. It was as if she was seeing the light after being imprisoned in the darkness for a very long time.

In the darkness, her early life was uneventful, as a mere test mule for many experiments that most persons would have backed out, but then Shinji came into her life, tried his best to open her heart, to make her a genuine person. Shinji was the first person who was truly concerned with her, someone who possessed that innocence, compassion and vulnerability that she could not find in Commander Ikari.

Just as she was becoming an individual instead of an artificial entity, the Angel cut that experience short before she could blossom, and from there she endured the darkness again as the third and final iteration of her body, doubting her self-worth.

It wasn't until Kaworu Nagisa arrived and he began to reverse her dire situation, little by little. Acts of kindness and affection that she could not derive from the Commander, and he gave open companionship that Shinji once used to supply her before he nearly lost his faith in himself.

Kaworu, she realized, was not a mere representative for an unknown agency who sent him here. He was really changing things when hope was at its lowest ebb, when everyone she had bonds with suffered in different ways.

Now he was kissing her, a confession of his reasons to love her, and she understood what he defined as love; Kaworu manifested it in his actions—he talked to her, he offered his help, he rescued her, and voluntarily cared while recuperating from yesterday's injuries.

In response she opened her heart and mind like never before.

What's more, he was a reconciling and renewing medium as Kaworu went out his way to reestablish bonds between Shinji and Asuka, and make peace between her and the Second Children. Now she finally understood the other two Children's weaknesses, once belligerent and doubting individuals who turned out to have bitter pasts that shaped their divergent personalities.

Kaworu's lips were light, like feathers on a dove's wing brushing against hers, as she felt the tingle in her senses, her heart pounding almost loudly, the passing of time becoming irrelevant. She liked this, it was an amazing, warm sensation, and furthermore, she must thank Kaworu for everything. His selflessness rightly deserved a little more.

And so she responded by kissing in return, gently leaning onto Kaworu, pressing her lips against his.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 18: KISSES AND BULLETS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/12/2010 0:06 a6/p6

* * *

Kilometers away from Rei and Kaworu, Shinji Ikari was hopping mad, infuriated, and fearless; his soul set on fire and jacked up to 400% as he was shooting away at their pursuers, who were determined to kill without hesitation. The first time he pulled the trigger, he was surprised that the real-deal submachine gun's kick was no different from the assault rifle he used while piloting and fighting.

He wasn't alone in the firefight as they flashed past Shin-Miyanoshita on Route 1, heading due east; Misato was blasting away from the sunroof, having understood his true intentions and she let him loose upon the terrorists chasing them; the Section Two agent was driving as if their lives depended on it, drifting through impossibly tight curves that demanded great skill at high speed, with one side of the road sloping all the way up to a mountain peak, the other a steep drop down to the waters of Hayakawa River below. Already the pursuing pickup was having trouble trying to close the gap.

As they were about to finish off the last four of their enemies in the pickup, Shinji found himself having no ammo, a hollow click coming out.

"Shit!" he cursed loudly and he pulled himself back into the rear seat. Asuka was still dumbfounded at him, but then sense immediately overtook her as she quickly grabbed a full clip from the backseat and handed it to Shinji, who then tossed out the empty clip, slammed in the fresh one, and cocked the SMG. He took a breath, relaxed that earlier stony expression on his face…

And smiled at the girl.

"I'm sorry… but thank you, Asuka," he said, amidst the loud cacophony of gunfire, and then poked his body back half-way out of the window.

Wordlessly wanting to become more useful, Asuka went about pulling out more ammo clips from the rear and placed them on the backseat, before she saw Misato squeeze back in and pulled out a spent clip, then gestured for a new one. Asuka passed the clip without hesitation into Misato's hand and the woman nodded, before reloading and going back into her firing position.

Suddenly an idea came up into Asuka's brain.

"What's your name?" Asuka asked aloud at Tsutomo Kanzaki, who was driving, busy weaving through four lanes on the highway.

"Tsutomo!" he shot back. "Call me Tomo instead!"

"Gimme your gun!"

"What? Are you nuts?"

"I don't frigging care!" Asuka shouted. "Borrow it to me, Tomo, and do what I have to do!"

With his right hand on the steering wheel for a few seconds, and not losing his eyes on the road, Tsutomo unholstered his Glock 17 and gave it to Asuka. "The ammo's on the center console," he added, pointing out the extra magazines in a holder.

"Okay, I know how to use it," Asuka said as she began tying her long hair with a rubber band she found in the console, before opening the window on her side, pulled the Glock's slide, went out and fired.

Tsutomo went back to concentrate himself on driving for their survival, but then a bizarre thought struck him: they were literally making all other action movies look pathetic in comparison, and it was crazy to see fourteen-year-old kids going out their way to bear arms and shoot for their survival. In Japan, no less! He shook his head and laughed out loud.

* * *

In Ohirodai, a white Mitsubishi Delica van was waiting at an alley adjacent to Route 1, its occupants locked and loaded. They heard the call to go for an intercept, and the driver stepped on the gas and swerved hard right.

He saw the Audi arriving, and signaled his comrades to fire. Three terrorists kicked open the rear door, and blasted away with AK-47 assault rifles and an RPD squad automatic weapon at the oncoming car.

* * *

Just as Misato was about to finish off the pickup, she felt two dull thuds on her back, as if someone was punching her vest. She turned around to see a white van in front of them firing at her with a massed volume of bullets. Misato instinctively ducked back into the Audi and yelled at the two Children: "Get inside! It's too much!"

Shinji and Asuka pulled back in obediently, closed the windows and stared at their guardian, breathing profusely. The thuds were becoming heavier, and the clear-aluminum-matrix windows were slowly starred with more bullet cracks, threatening to implode into pieces. Tsutomo was desperately trying to dodge and reduce the damage on the Audi by weaving amidst the danger of the ledge to the far left.

The woman fumed. "Those cheeky bastards!"

"What's next?" Asuka questioned.

Misato grabbed Tsutomo's radio and called for help. "Hammer Two, Hammer Two, this is Red One, do you read me, over?" she demanded. "We're having too many hostiles at once! We're at… Where are we?" she asked Tsutomo, who knew all of Hakone on the back of his hand.

"Ohirodai!" he answered.

"Roger, this is Hammer Two, I got a visual on your position, Red One. Looks like you're in delta sierra," Trudy answered at the other end. "Delta Sierra" meant deep shit in trouble.

* * *

Trudy Chacon's Cheyenne was screaming down Hayakawa Valley, with guns ready. She already had a lock-on at the enemy Delica, and fired two Hellfire missiles, streaking to meet the hostiles. The first missile hit the front end of the van, the explosion causing it to pitch forward into the air, and another cut the maimed van in half. The Audi went through the rain of junk, and around the wrecked Delica, before gaining speed to widen the gap.

She then banked the Cheyenne a bit to the right to take on the pickup, but then made quick maneuvers to confuse the anti-aircraft missiles the terrorists might be carrying. The enemy retaliated by firing a Grail, but Trudy knew better by punching out flares, jinked to the right and ducking low to see the missile stray off-course, enemy guidance missing her by about 15 meters.

Trudy switched to the chain gun, and eyed the pickup in the reticule of her targeting system. She then let loose a three-second burst, chasing the enemy vehicle with 20mm rounds.

* * *

In the Audi, Misato and the Children watched the pickup first lose control, and then its cab was torn apart with bullets from the Cheyenne before it veered to the left, tossing its masked occupants and their cache of weapons and munitions off the pickup bed, smashed through a guard rail and flew off the cliff, heading to certain death into the rapids below.

They couldn't see the explosion, but they heard a muffled thud, and then the Cheyenne roared past, making a victorious flyby.

An eerie silence took over the Audi, all of them quietly taking stock of the situation as they breathed deeply, adrenaline still in their bloodstreams. As she settled down onto the front seat, Misato felt suddenly thirsty, swallowing hard, while Shinji and Asuka looked at each other as they set their weapons down, wondering if they won or lost. The Audi's interior was a total mess, with spent brass cartridges and empty magazines scattered on the carpeting and over the seats. Tsutomo was now slowing down a bit, driving close to normal at 60 kilometers per hour.

"Red One, this is Hammer Two, you're now out of the red," Trudy spoke on the radio. "All hostiles are down, over."

With the UMP on her lap, Misato picked up the radio. "I copy that, Hammer Two. Thanks for the assist, that was sierra hotel, over," she answered.

"Our pleasure, Red One, yours was kick-ass, hostiles swarming over and you beat them off. Gotta go RTB, check on Hammer One and our BDA. _Vaya con Dios. _Roger that and over and out," Trudy said before going off the air.

Misato sighed deeply, finally elated after letting go of the radio.

"That's all?" Shinji asked between breaths.

The older woman turned to the Children and smiled wanly. "It's done," she said. "I didn't expect something unusual coming from both of you, but you two did a job well done, considering that none of you have fired a _real_ gun before."

"Really?" Asuka questioned. "It's just a fluke," she bragged as if she was at the country fair, winning prizes at the shooting gallery.

Shinji shook his head in jest; he thought of celebrating for going through the crucible. He also felt he was a _real_ man this time.

Misato chuckled. "Just like the old days," she said, referring to their synchro training, before turning her attention to Tsutomo. "As soon as you see the nearest gas station," Misato added, "we stop there for a long drink and a piss break, then call up for some backup, explain to the Sub-Commander, plus a quick airlift for Asuka, too, if there's anything wrong with this car. We'll also ask your boss, PR and Legal to clean this up, then we'll book and grill the bastards. If even one of them is alive."

"Okay," Tsutomo agreed, as he picked up the radio. "It's been one helluva day, ma'am."

"This is going to be one hell of a fucking mess, too, what with some casualties on our side, but personally, this is probably the most action I ever had in my life," Misato remarked, but she grimaced. "And… Oh, shit, will you please hurry up? I think my bladder's about to go off!" she cried.

Blinking, Shinji and Asuka looked at each other in askance, the redhead began to giggle, and then they laughed loudly at Misato's predicament. Good God, they were also glad to be alive and kicking.

* * *

At the same moment, at NERV's aboveground railroad yard and cargo terminal, a JR freight train from Atsugi arrived with six container vans on flatbed cars, halting to a grind while men in orange coveralls and khaki uniforms scrambled to their positions, their section leaders gesticulating and giving orders through handheld radios to coordinate the transfer.

A forked cargo lifter began to offload the containers from the train and transferred them to waiting trailers, which in turn would be driven to a cargo elevator leading all the way down to the Geofront.

The consignment manifesto officially stated that the containers carried heavy construction equipment, dry chemical compounds, sterilization plant fixtures and engine parts, but inside was the weapons, munitions and military gear desperately requested by the Second Section Director, in secret, in order to arm the troops to the teeth.

Despite some NERV casualties, the two-pronged mission was a success.

* * *

Kaworu and Rei parted their lips after what seemed to be a blissful eternity. They both blinked their eyes, and stared at each other wordlessly. They also noticed that their cheeks blushed furiously, as their hearts beat as one.

"S… Sorry," Kaworu said, first to break the silence.

"It is all right," Rei answered. "I understand your feelings about me."

"Yes," he whispered. "Thank you for giving me a chance to share them."

There was a pause between the two Children, taking stock of the aftermath of their first kiss, but Kaworu felt he needed to do something.

"Can I open the windows?" Kaworu asked.

Rei nodded. "Yes, you may."

"Now, wait here," he said, smiling.

Kaworu stood up and looked around, and then because the near-darkness and the mustiness of the room seemed oppressive, he walked up to the veranda window and parted the curtains. He was greeted by what was left of Tokyo-3, a crater lake instead of a city skyline with a backdrop of Hakone's mountains. He then opened the sliding doors and let the breeze come in.

"Much better," he remarked before turning back to Rei, whose blue hair was being tousled by the wind. Kaworu sat down on the bed and said, "I had to kiss you because… it's the only way I could express this love."

"I feel… free," Rei said. "It was as if I saw the light."

"Why?"

"I… The Commander may want me close, but I do not know him well. He may care, but there is in him that keeps him from doing things that you can do. He may talk, but he could be choosing his words. I may have this bond with him, yet he seems to be distant, like he is thinking of something else."

Rei looked at him. "It seems that we have our own secrets. We are mysteries to many people who do not know us well, except for what we appear to them on the outside."

"That's right, I'm afraid," Kaworu agreed.

"Therefore I want you to answer some questions that left me doubting about you since you came here," Rei said.

Kaworu frowned. "What is it, then?"

"Who you are, what are you doing here, and the purpose of your presence," Rei stated. "But first, I must lead you down to show you my secret."

* * *

They stopped at an Eneos service station at the Yamazaki Interchange, close to Odawara City, where Misato quickly rushed to the toilet and peed, with Tsutomo making calls to NERV HQ, while the two Children went into the convenience store and bought themselves big bottles of cold beverage and water. The cashier was astonished at their haggard, sweaty appearance as she processed their purchases.

As soon as Misato was finished, they all sat on the curb together with bottles in hand and drank deeply. While they waited, letting the adrenaline subside, Tsutomo was the first to ask.

"I expected this to be a light piece of work," he said, "but, damn, why would someone attack us with that much firepower, considering that we're basically ferrying you to the airport?"

Obviously the question was aimed at Asuka, who knotted her forehead after she was done checking her backpack. "Who, me?"

"It could be someone who has a grudge against us," Misato said. "Things aren't doing well with the UN lately, with some terrorists attacking them."

"I don't have enemies that _mad_, really," Asuka said. "Not the seriously insane like those jerks."

Tsutomo took a deep breath. "All right, I think all of you have the right to know, so before I say this, don't get mad at me," he said.

"Now, precisely what the heck is going on?" Shinji asked, frowning.

"Well," he said, sighing, "the purpose of ferrying you to the airport was a _diversion_."

"WHAT?" Shinji and Asuka screeched in unison.

Tsutomo explained about the new weapons shipment that was badly needed, and the need to root out any possible NERV enemies in the Hakone area, especially infiltrators, terrorists and sleeper agents. He also answered any hard questions.

"I'm so sorry that I put you guys in harm's way," Tsutomo said. "It's too important."

Asuka was visibly annoyed. "Damn! You should've told us in the first place!" she railed. "It would've been easier using one of those gunships than having us almost close to being killed!"

"I should have, but I was following my boss' plans." The agent shook his head. "The last thing he wanted was to have a screwed-up record upon retirement, and already he's under pressure after too many problems."

"From who?" Shinji asked.

"Your dad," Tsutomo answered. "The Man with the Plan."

Shinji shook his head. "Looks like I'm not the only one," he said.

"Yeah," Tsutomo agreed. "I know your plight. It's an open secret in the neighborhood; everyone knows that you couldn't get along with him, that he gives you the cold shoulder."

"Now why would someone try to kill me?" Asuka asked, looking worried.

"I have no idea what those bastards were up to," Misato admitted. "Not until we get to the bottom of this..."

Then they saw several NERV vehicles quickly converge on the station's parking lot, emergency strobes flashing while a Cheyenne landed at a nearby vacant lot, dust flying as its turbines wound down. From the aircraft, a distraught Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga alighted from the rear ramp and walked towards them.

"What happened, Major?" Fuyutsuki asked, while several Section Two men came out of their SUVs and went about checking the beat-up Audi S4, nearly covered in bullet dents, and already two of the tires were flat.

"It's a long story, sir," Misato said, before taking a deep breath and began reciting her report on the spot as Makoto jotted down notes on his iPad. Tsutomo walked around the Audi, his black coat draped on his shoulder and tie loosened, inspecting the battle damage while talking to his fellow agents. They were in awe of him as they listened to his narrative.

While they were busy, Asuka and Shinji were themselves alone at the curb.

"I'm still bothered," Shinji said.

"About what?" Asuka questioned.

The young man sighed. "I… I don't know, but I just killed people today," he admitted.

"Why do you have to feel guilty when they're really going after our necks?"

"I always thought it to be wrong. Kill Angels, yes, but… people, no."

Asuka glared at him. "They're _bad guys_, you know! Terrorists!" she scolded. "True, it's not easy when you're forced to kill for the first time. We had no other choice, we had to fight."

Shinji said nothing.

"Listen to me," Asuka said. "We're in very strange times, and these times aren't very good for us. Not everyone likes us, apparently someone hates me, and that's going too far. What are you going to do if some punk breaks into your house, and is armed? Are you going to surrender, or are you going to put up a fight?"

"I don't know," Shinji groaned.

"Now what if that punk decides to kill you because you're a potential witness? What are you going to do?"

The young man closed his eyes hard, trying to think about the consequences.

"I… I think I should be glad instead for shooting back," Shinji said. "You're right. I have to fight than die."

Asuka nodded. "Oh, see what I mean. You told me you wanted to do the right thing, and you did, and then you say that you're so bothered about shooting up terrorists. C'mon, Shinji, that's how war feels like because the first time you kill on the battlefield as a recruit you have second thoughts on the first night, and then the next time it becomes part of your duty; you can't object, it's your duty as a soldier to kill if necessary."

"Ah… That made sense," Shinji said, before groaning. "I think I'll have to live with this from now on."

"That's right. Same with me," Asuka agreed, shrugging her shoulders.

Both Children watched the crowd for a while, trying to take stock of their predicament, drinking Pocari Sweat until something came up upon Asuka's mind.

"Damn," she muttered. "How disgusting."

"What?" Shinji asked, putting his bottle down.

"We came up against a bunch of amateurs, that's what!" she exclaimed, before laughing triumphantly. "I like Tsutomo's driving; he's like Jason Statham! Misato's bad-ass like Angelina Jolie!" she added, referring to the stars' action movie roles.

"Maybe we're lucky," Shinji said, still feeling glum. "Except for this," he added as he pulled out of his pocket what was left of his SDAT player, literally crushed and bent, wired innards coming out and its LCD display shattered. The cassette inside was barely okay, though.

"Oh," Asuka blurted. "That one? A pittance. You should've bought an iPod instead. SDATs are becoming passé."

"I should have…" Shinji trailed, suddenly wishing he had money to buy a new music player.

"Well, anyway..." Asuka said as she unzipped and dug into her backpack, and brought out her iPod and Skull Candy headphones, offering them to Shinji, who was suddenly wide-eyed. "This is yours from now on," she added.

"Uh… Really?" he stammered.

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, it's yours now, officially. Don't worry about me; I'll buy myself a new one with the severance pay."

Shinji took hold of the iPod and quickly scrolled through the songs. He nodded and said, "Thanks again, Asuka."

Asuka smiled. "You're welcome. Apart from this mess we got into today, I also owe you much, especially with the mission down at the volcano. If it weren't for you, I would've been fried."

Shinji grinned back, genuinely glad as he put on the headphones, but then Misato, Makoto, Fuyutsuki and Kanzaki approached them. In the distance, Trudy Chacon, wearing a flight suit and helmet in hand, was waiting patiently along with her co-pilot, guzzling Gatorade as they stood in the shade beside her Cheyenne.

"What?" Shinji said, but he immediately knew what they were about to say next. "Ah, yeah, we're leaving, right?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

Asuka suddenly looked sullen.

Misato nodded and sighed. "Yeah, we're going," she said. "C'mon, we'll have to load much of your stuff in the gunship, Asuka. The plane's waiting there at the airport."

* * *

Rei took a nap, her head resting on Kaworu's chest as they were lying together on the bed. He could feel the rhythm of her breathing as she slumbered, his arm wrapped around her, the girl apparently contented with his warmth, but he was also thinking of the consequences of his actions.

Rei accepted his reasons, but he wondered if she would be able to handle the truth. He knew her origins and what role she would be playing soon, just as he always knew that he would be gambling his life to accomplish a goal. Maybe her heart would accept as he truly was, even if it may hurt her, for her own sake. Is it not that someone said that the truth would set one free?

Before he fell asleep, Kaworu hoped that neither the Chairman nor the Commander should know of this forbidden love.

* * *

In his van parked somewhere in Mishima, a town south of Hakone, the killer was on a terse conversation on the phone with his handler, after he gave out a verbal report.

"We will give you one final chance," the handler said, his voice garbled. "One last chance."

"I know, boss," the killer answered. "At least we now know how they react."

The handler on the other side cleared his throat. "You maybe right, but still you must kill her. That is an order. You have to go inside or follow her by yourself. Do the job. Do anything you can to take her out. Time is running out for us—you have only three days."

"I'll do it. It's my damned responsibility… I'll get it done tonight."

"Otherwise, if you do not eliminate Miss Asuka Langley Soryu, Second Children, then we will send someone much smarter to eliminate you _and_ her. That's a promise, and we _always_ keep our promises."

* * *

At Odawara International Airport, a huge UN Airbus A380 military cargo transport, taking in loads of palletized cargo bound for Frankfurt, waited for Asuka as the gunship landed on the tarmac. Once the engines wound down, they walked out of the rear ramp. While the adults led the way, pushing carts containing Asuka's belongings, both Children were discussing on how they could keep in touch.

"How could I contact you? Do you have a number?" He opened his phone and checked the address book. "Ah, wait, looks like I _do_ have your number," he corrected himself.

Asuka chuckled. "How forgetful you are, dummy," she muttered. "I already know your phone and email address, yet you don't have a Facebook account."

"What?" Shinji blurted, stowing his phone back into the pocket.

The redhead shook her head. "A Facebook account. Get yourself an account so that I could chat with you once I get back there. Almost everyone has one."

"Ah, okay," he agreed. "I'll try."

Asuka heaved a sigh. "You know what, Shinji?" she asked.

Shinji frowned a bit. "Yes?"

"I'm going to miss all of this," she said, feeling regretful. "I'll have to be content with watching what would happen soon back there in Tokyo-3."

"I know," Shinji said. "I wished you could be there, but my father wrote down your fate."

"Yeah, your father," she said, displeased at how everything depended on the bearded cold-hearted bastard. "He's not going to change, right?"

Shinji shook his head. "No. Not a bit."

"But," Asuka said, "You're not your father's son. You're not like him. Certainly you don't want to fall into the same trap as he, do you?"

"I don't want to wind up like him someday," Shinji answered, watching Misato and Fuyutsuki talk to the loadmaster and the cargo plane's pilot.

"Anyway," Asuka said. "Turns out you could change yourself and things for the better. You can be a better person, just as I am trying right now. You can also find happiness in many ways. But since you're an Eva pilot, understand that everyone's placing their hopes and dreams, looking up upon you to do the right thing, even those who don't know you and me as we busted our asses trying to beat the Angels. The spotlight's on you from now on."

Shinji sighed. "I understand," he said.

"Regarding the gunfight back there, I made a mistake of saying the wrong things and words about you while we were in the car."

"What did you say?"

Asuka pursed her lips for a second. "I said 'hate' right in your face. Didn't know it still really hurts you. So again, I'm sorry, sometimes you're so sensitive you think some people insult you. When I saw you with that angry look on your face, you looked as if you were on berserker mode, but the next thing later I realized that you're not going to hurt me—you decided to fight back."

"I had to do what's right. I don't want to see you hurt again."

"I know now. I understand what you did back there, so I apologize for the insult."

"Thanks," Shinji said. "I forgive you."

"And, oh, yes… I didn't know you can shoot that good."

Shinji laughed a bit. "Blame it on Kensuke," he said. "Some of his military nuttiness gets to me. He showed me how to use that gun."

"When?"

"When I first ran away, got stuck with him at his tent as he was playing soldier."

Asuka nodded. "I see," she said but noticed that Misato was gesturing at her to come. She figured that it was time to board the plane.

"Shinji," Asuka said.

"Yes?"

"Goodbye," she said, but feeling sorrowful. "I'm going to miss you all. I'll see you someday," the girl added as she walked away, waving her hand.

Shinji sighed, knowing that Asuka had no choice except to accept her fate. "G… Goodbye, too, Asuka," he answered, his eyes feeling moist. "Farewell."

* * *

With the Cheyenne gunship parked behind them, Shinji and the others all stood a distance away from the massive cargo plane, its jet engines at quarter-power and ready to leave, Asuka glanced at the group for the last time, her backpack hanging on the shoulder, as she walked towards the plane. She looked sullen, feeling torn about leaving this town, wondering what may come by the time she wakes up back in Wilhelmshaven.

As she mounted the steps up to the plane's door, Asuka sighed, and then glanced at the crowd again, wondering when she would be seeing Shinji again. She didn't know, but in a single day they set aside their differences, and then fought side-by-side once more.

Asuka closed her eyes, hesitating to get inside, wishing she could at least make her moment here last longer.

When pushed to the limit, when his fear is stretched beyond tolerance, she realized, Shinji is transformed, and if someone he loves is hurt, he was willing to fight and defend. Asuka knew this, back in her biology class in college, because certain animals exhibit extraordinary abilities when they are in danger.

Is it not when a hedgehog is in danger it needs to defend with its spines? But if he wishes to mate, he could find a way to couple himself to a female without hurting. Why not?

Asuka finally understood.

Here was someone, whom she once used to hate, but truthfully sensitive, gentle, compassionate, and with a passion for life, yet determined to fight if necessary; someone who, in a single day, sense was hammered into him, along with a lesson of self-love and encouragement given by a stranger, made manifest through his extraordinary actions; someone whose past was the same as hers, just as painful, just as traumatic; and someone who still has hope in his heart for redemption, self-respect—and love.

The fire she saw in Shinji's eyes in the heat of battle was the fire of passion to find respect and acceptance, to protect, to live, and to become a genuine person. He also avowed not to be too much of being his father's son, for the sins of the father are not the sins of the son.

She stared at Shinji, who was slowly feeling the loneliness of being left behind. Misato also stood there besides him, completely morose, the woman presumably thinking back of the many months Asuka was with them. The other NERV officers stood by, with their own thoughts about her, and even Kozo Fuyutsuki was probably recalling the day when Shinji and Asuka once argued like a married couple before his presence.

Then the memories came through her mind, mental snapshots of life while she was in Tokyo-3, some real and some imagined: at home with Misato and Shinji and that wacky bird Pen-Pen; at school with Hikari, glowering at the rest of the class; Toji and Kensuke hanging around, goofs as usual; at the Geofront, Rei staring at her, seemingly an unfeeling girl, yet breathing and her heart beating; Kaworu, smiling and kind-hearted; the Evas standing tall before her, man-made war machines, with scowls of defiance even in the face of grave catastrophe borne by the Angels.

Asuka would be missing them all. Only memories to live by until the day she dies.

But an unexpected thought struck her, and she opened her mouth wordlessly, but in her mind she made her final decision, for her heart was talking.

Suddenly Asuka jumped off the steps, sprinted across the tarmac amidst the pleading calls of the loadmaster to return, arms wide open before she hugged Shinji Ikari tight. They spun together in that embrace, even as he was surprised at her gesture, before Asuka wordlessly let go of him.

Shinji stood there, wondering aloud. "What are you doing? You're supposed to go!"

"No!" Asuka objected. "Not unless you kiss me!"

The boy's jaw almost dropped. "Really?"

She leaned close and whispered, "Do it right this time. I don't want any clichés anymore."

"O… Okay," he agreed, but Asuka kissed him instead. Not in the way they did it forcefully the first time around, but instead they locked lips in a natural manner. Shinji now remembered Misato's advice, and so he took her face with his hands, gently making contact with her lips before closing off their mouths. Asuka didn't mind his breath or hers; she simply went with the flow.

The adults standing before them were astonished as they watched them for a minute. Shinji and Asuka slowly spun as they kissed, then embraced once more, as though they were dancing in a waltz, not wanting to waste a moment, but turn this moment into an event they can all remember.

And then they disengaged. Asuka sighed and confronted Misato and Fuyutsuki, both not sure how to react.

"Sir, I want to try again," she said, determination in her voice.

"What?" Fuyutsuki asked, perplexed.

"Give me a chance, Sub-Commander, I want to take another opportunity this time," Asuka declared. "I want to go _back!_"

Fuyutsuki blinked. "You mean…? But…"

Asuka stood straight, and said sternly, "I am Asuka Langley Soryu, Second Children, pilot of Evangelion Production Type Unit Two… And may I request for your permission for me to return to active duty, sir!"

Misato and Fuyutsuki stared at each other, still dumbfounded but otherwise trying to think what better to do. But since Fuyutsuki had as much authority as Gendo to lead people under his command, he also possessed the nominal right to accept, assign or discharge personnel as he sees fit, apart from being a secret member of the Marduk Institute selection board, whose responsibility was to search and select candidate Eva pilots.

The old man sighed. "Miss Langley, can you state to me the reasons why do you wish to return?" he questioned.

Asuka took a deep breath, and began to explain her decision. "I want to redeem myself, sir. I want to prove that I can do it again as a pilot, but this time with a clear conscience _and_ a pure heart. I have finally accepted what I am and my past, as my childhood was a tragic experience. Now that the people I spent time with, for better or worse, have forgiven me for offending them before, after I told them I was sorry, I am willing to put myself again into Unit Two."

The redhead paused for a second. "Furthermore, sir, I have another reason," she added.

The Sub-Commander cocked an eye quizzically. "And what is it?"

Asuka turned her attention to Shinji, and stared at his eyes. There was a momentary lump in her throat before she spoke.

"I love Shinji," she declared. "I finally understood his feelings. That's why I want to stay on, sir."

The young boy was speechless. He finally felt redemption.

"I… I love you as well," he responded, smiling. "Thanks."

Fuyutsuki sighed, wondering if Gendo would be able to accept the renewed defiance of the Second Children, but then he smiled and chuckled, before he cleared his throat. He would deal with Gendo later on this matter should he mentions it, even if he could catch hell. This was now _his_ command responsibility, and he will defend his actions and decisions.

"With the authority entrusted in me as Sub-Commander of Special Agency NERV, and with witnesses present, I accept your request, Miss Langley," he said. "We are now willing to give you another chance in Project E, reinstating you as a pilot. Welcome back to NERV."

As if on cue, the other NERV officers present all saluted at Asuka in unison, before Fuyutsuki gave her a salute as Shinji grinned, completely ecstatic. The boy felt as if he was about to cry in relief.

"Now, I have to warn you both about this little problem of yours, though," Fuyutsuki harrumphed. Both Children did a double-take, blinking.

"If in case you two are together," he said, forefinger upraised, "Please do not try to embarrass me, Children. Don't attempt to pull off those childish 'married couple' arguments right before my presence ever again. Behave like professionals, for you two are the only ones qualified for this job, and no one else can do what you are capable of. Is that clear?"

Facing Fuyutsuki, Asuka and Shinji nodded in unison. "Yes, sir," they promised.

Then Asuka went fishing into her backpack, pulled out a pair of red interface headsets, took off the rubber band tying her hair, and wore each of the headsets to bunch her strands of hair until they were attached properly. She lifted her chin high, and the girl was now once more the regal and proud Asuka that Shinji remembered best.

"How do I look?" she asked Shinji, who was already in tears and smiling.

"G… Great, just like back when I first met you," he said. "Welcome home, Asuka!"

Only then both Children hugged and wept upon their shoulders, while the adults around them cheered and clapped their hands in congratulation.

Today was going to be Day One for the rest of Asuka's life.

* * *

Before continuing on to the Geofront, Kaworu and Rei decided together to visit the shore of the crater lagoon for a while. While not yet sunset, they walked down, hand in hand, up to the water's edge.

It was nearly the same tranquil scene, like Kaworu had passed by days before, when he first met Shinji, of birds screeching above the diamond waves as they flew, while at the distance there were the burned-out hulks of the ruined buildings towering over the water. The sky was the color of LCL, with a tinge of blue and streaks of thin, feathery pink-white cirrus clouds.

"Here we are," Kaworu informed as he took off his sneakers and socks, cuffing the legs of his pants up to his knees. "There's something pleasant about having the water swirl around your feet."

Rei nodded, and she promptly unshod her shoes, and then stuffed the socks inside.

And so they walked together along the shore, shoes in hand, the waves lapping and splashing on their pale legs, with the grains of sand playfully dancing on their toes and soles. There was something alive and warm about the bare feet touching the wet sand of the earth meeting the water.

While they walked, Kaworu asked the girl. "Have you ever thought of swimming in the sea?"

Rei shook her head gently. "No, I always swam in the pool, because it was necessary that I must be present at Headquarters most of the time, should they need me."

Kaworu chuckled, shaking his head. "Too bad, we should try it someday," he suggested.

"Yes, I will. If the Commander allows me to do so," Rei answered.

"But..." Kaworu trailed off. "Even if you say you don't trust his judgment, you'll be having problems if you depend too much on Commander Ikari."

"Why?"

"What are you going to do when the time comes that the Commander _no longer_ needs you?"

Rei paused in her tracks. It was an uncertainty she could be facing anytime. She spent years committing herself to the sacred importance of Project E, her life completely preordained for the task, and never once she entertained any thoughts of becoming what she really wanted to be; no thought for her own future, which meant that there maybe no place for Rei to go on with her life.

The blue-haired girl looked glum. "I do not know. I am not a naïve dreamer."

Kaworu blinked. "Why?"

"I admit that I am nothing. I dream nothing beyond of what I only know, and I do not dream about my future," Rei admitted, downcast. "I was an instrument that the Commander needed to fulfill his plans, and once I complete my purpose, I return to nothing."

"But Rei..." Kaworu trailed off.

"However I am still myself, even if I sometimes believe that I am just nothing," Rei whispered instead, cutting him off, while the hem of her navy blue skirt was blown across by the breeze. "I have become myself through the instrumentality of the links between me and everybody else, and I have been formed by interaction with other people."

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, that makes you unique," he agreed. "However, I fear that there's someone else who's your true identity, the one you have to see because I felt _her_ presence. You don't know _her_, because you don't want to see that, so you were trying to escape."

Somewhere, Kaworu sensed a nether region within Rei, which he decided it best not to reveal to her until later; except for some small hints he was giving to her at the moment.

"Because I fear something?"

Kaworu nodded. "Unfortunately, yes, through your eyes, I can feel the fear in your heart. You have to discover and confront your true identity."

There was a pause before Rei realized why. Her eyes repeatedly blinked.

"I... I do fear something," Rei said. "Because I feel that she might not have a human shape. Because the present self that is of my existence might disappear. That is what I am truly afraid of."

"You're afraid of it?" Kaworu asked.

Rei sadly shook her head. "N... No," she answered. "I am glad... I wished to die, and all I needed was despair and nothingness."

"Ayanami, you can't," Kaworu disagreed. "You can't be nothing or die for it. You can't allow yourself to be nothing; you're _not expendable_. You have to stand bravely for yourself."

For a moment they locked eyes, letting Kaworu to read out what sorrow she was feeling at the moment.

Kaworu frowned. "That can't be you. You still have a lot to live for," he pleaded.

Downcast, yet Rei looked up into Kaworu's eyes. "I have hoped for the day, the day that I may finally face my very end, although I am unsure how. How in any way I could accept my fate."

Kaworu turned away for a moment to watch the setting sun sink into the horizon. "Rei," he whispered.

"Yes?"

"I've seen you as a living person inside with a very strong will," Kaworu said. "You put that will through duty and dedication many times before, even if it could cost your life—or it has. It is also your very strength, just like the strength and beauty of well-woven silk, and I'm not kidding. But I truly believe that you can use that same will to define your identity, your life and reciprocate for the people you think you love, who can also love you in return."

Kaworu sighed before he continued. "It may be trite, but I came here not because I was told to do what my superiors wanted at their insistence. I finally realized why I was here for."

Rei nodded, agreeing with what he confessed.

"Rei... I admit that I really wanted to keep on helping you all," he explained carefully. "Because I don't want to be selfish, I can't afford myself to just stand here and watch all of you suffer. I have seen it on their faces and on your face, in their eyes and in your eyes, and they told me that they've lost their sense of direction that I must help them see their way once more."

Rei blinked. "You mean…?"

"I have the strength and the will unlike the rest of you, but I want to humbly share these, and continue to do so, because the day of reckoning that we have to face is coming soon, and if necessary, I may have to sacrifice myself so that all of you will live on."

"Like me? Is it for me? And is it for everyone?"

Out of a need to make her understand, Kaworu gently let his hands rest on Rei's shoulders and whispered. "Yes, I do, because I care and I love you. Because I can feel within my heart the pain that all of you have shared to me. So trust me once more, soon we may have to help Shinji and Asuka fight through their most difficult time of their lives."

"Yes," she agreed, "just as I have committed myself defending them from harm."

"Well, it's going to be you and me to set things right," Kaworu promised. "For you, I will."

"Thank you."

For a moment, Rei stared at Kaworu with her soft red eyes, smiled in return, before she leaned up to him, close to his face and kissed him again, but then Kaworu slowly embraced her, the lake water splashing upon their feet, with the backdrop of the setting sun shining down.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** Finally! Some parts of this chapter were originally bits and pieces of first-draft Chapter 10 (six years ago), just before I decided to change things, and some were scenes I envisioned as I was writing the new season, such as the car chase and Asuka's departure. I'm sure some of you would also recognize fragments or themes that were from the TV show.

In case you noticed, lately a certain book (and eventual movie adaptation) is lending influence as I wrote, especially on the romantic parts.

Well, since the last 4 chapters I was surprised at the flow of the dialogue, and able to construct it right off the bat with only a cup of coffee, as opposed to the first time I wrote the first 8 chapters six years ago, blindly trying to make a conversation work. To aspiring writers, if you wish to be respected, it help to read about 10 to 60 fiction books a year to find your writing style, and write what you know, as long as you have William Strunk's primer with you.

With all this kissing and shooting, I hope that I got the character development right for you. Thank you once again for coming this far.

This chapter's dedicated to Axel and Myssa, the folks at , and to all the A/S and K/R fans out there.


	19. Light & Water

_What thou art is mine;  
Our state cannot be severed, we are one,  
One flesh; to lose thee were to lose my self.  
_John Milton (1608 - 1674), English writer.  
Adam to Eve. _Paradise Lost_

* * *

Walking hand-in-hand, Kaworu and Rei were a bit surprised when they came at Gate 18. There were now some body searches, as the sentries frisked and waved their metal detector wands over the bodies of those lining up to enter, while another group of sentries were busy setting up a walk-in metal detector and an x-ray machine. One sentry standing guard even had a bomb-sniffing dog on a leash.

While he watched Rei being frisked by a female sentry, despite the girl being a minor and a member of Project E, Kaworu asked the male sentry, who was finished checking him out. He noticed that the sentry was wearing body armor and an MP5 submachine gun dangling from a shoulder harness.

"I was wondering, sir, but what's going on?" he inquired.

The sentry cocked an eye. "It's a yellow alert today, can't you see, son? Some bunch of nutcase terrorists attacked a convoy."

Indeed, a scrolling LED ticker above the gate showed the current security status, warning all NERV personnel to take necessary precautions and stay alert for further announcements.

Kaworu looked worried. "When?"

"This afternoon," he said. "The nuts nearly wiped out all the escorts save for the VIP car, or so I was told by a Section Two suit passing here. Those passengers in the VIP car took on the bastards with their guns like they were swatting flies."

Worried, Kaworu turned to Rei, who was done being searched. Once they were together, swiping their cards through the turnstiles and walked towards the elevators, he told her what was wrong.

"Shinji and the others got themselves in trouble," he said.

Rei suddenly looked concerned. "Are they doing fine?" she asked.

Kaworu shook his head. "I don't know. The sentry only had some third-hand information. Let's just hope you're right, maybe we'll meet them here instead to make sure they're okay, or we try to ask someone who's close to Major Katsuragi."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 19: LIGHT AND WATER  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/20/2010 2:29 a6/p6

* * *

"What is the meaning of this?" Gendo Ikari demanded from Director Hamamoto, who was standing still before him. He was summoned up to the office for a security briefing about the ambush after a day of self-reflection down at Terminal Dogma.

"Sir, the IR attack was unexpected," Hamamoto said, trying not to be fazed by the Iceman's freezing stare. "Somehow a mole must've heard about the convoy and then relayed to the terrorist group, then attempted to assassinate the Children. Again, we're trying our best to find out where the leak came from, but I'm sure there's somebody who's big enough to finance such an attack to be carried out here."

Hamamoto checked his own copy of his report, and read off the casualty figures. "Right now we managed to capture three of them, ID'd one, and they're currently being grilled, but the rest of the terrorist cell has been killed, and they're been two dozen of them at the time of the attack. Most of them were probably American, Middle Eastern, Russian or European. Unfortunately on our side, we have four men killed, sixteen injured, with three probably in serious condition. I've made arrangements to inform the relatives of those who died in the operation."

Gendo sighed, trying to control his seething anger. "Even if they claim to be IR terrorists, find out who's behind this and know precisely what they're targeting at," he directed. "These security lapses are becoming intolerable."

"Yes, sir," Hamamoto answered. "We're taking all measures possible."

"And one more thing, Director," Gendo harrumphed, as he picked up a piece of paper and showed it to the Director. "What is this shipment I heard about that arrived here just recently? Why does this shipment includes _heavy military weapons and munitions_?"

"Oh, I apologize for that, sir," Hamamoto blurted, realizing the cat was now out of the bag. He sighed, but he felt confident this time, not afraid of being thrown out of NERV should Ikari refuses his input.

"Sir," the old Director began, "I'll be frank with you for the first time: NERV is supposed to be a military organization, and our quality of security against armed intrusions is just only good for small ragtag terrorist cells, just like the IR who hit our convoy. Now, barring the typical Angels, what if there's a _human _threat _bigger_ than those groups? And considering that we're almost winning the battle against Angels, what's going to happen by the time we're done with all of them, and how we would deal with that conclusion?"

Gendo could only respond with a patent murmur, realizing that the question has hit him squarely. There was enough money for everything but _security_.

"Because we have a big budget, sir, approved by the UN and good for five years, isn't it natural that we have to beef up our security forces apart from allocating money for infrastructure, salaries, and the Evas?" Hamamoto said. "That's why we chose to fudge the accounting figures, go under the table and do just that. I want to make damn sure that the troops are properly equipped and armed just in case. The last thing we want is a worst-case scenario where we are caught with our pants down, considering that not everyone in the UN likes the way we spend their money."

The Supreme Commander could only manage a frustrated sigh. After many misgivings and mistakes, Hamamoto was right this time.

"Who approved this black budget?" Gendo asked.

"The Sub-Commander, sir," Hamamoto answered. "Because I suggested this scheme to him. We intend that we must be prepared for _any_ contingencies in the near future, even the unthinkable."

* * *

Kaworu and Rei didn't know that their Project E teammates were at home instead, as Trudy Chacon had earlier dropped off Misato, Tsutomo and the Children near the woman's flat before flying back to base with the Sub-Commander and the others onboard.

At the moment, Tsutomo kept guard at Misato's flat, on Fuyutsuki's orders, armed with the UMP45 submachine gun they used earlier in the chase; the base had declared yellow alert for 24 hours until further notice. While sitting on the couch in the living room, watching a Beat Takeshi comedy show on TV, he could smell Shinji's cooking from the kitchen as the young boy was preparing dinner for four.

"That's chicken teriyaki?" the agent asked.

"Yeah," Shinji said as he cooked the marinated chicken in a skillet on the range, adding some sauce before tasting it by picking a small piece of meat using a pair of cooking chopsticks.

Meanwhile Asuka came out of the shower, feeling fresh, wearing a pair of shorts and her habitual loose yellow shirt, as she dried her hair with a towel. She sniffed the air and smiled. "Not bad, nicely spiced," the girl remarked as she read the recipe tacked to the fridge with a magnet. "Where did you get the recipe?"

"I just picked it up on someone's blog," Shinji said, still paying attention to his cooking.

"I see," Asuka said. "At least you still know what you're doing."

The boy grinned. "I'd credit this to our home economics teacher."

"To gain nice-guy points?" she asked, sounding amused.

Shinji chuckled. "Maybe soon I should ask Toji to attend home economics classes for him to gain respect from Hikari, and you know her."

"One can't be a gourmet if he can't cook," Asuka added, before laughing.

As he cooked, Shinji was glad that a measure of normalcy, barring the absence of Pen-Pen, was restored in the Katsuragi household. He could hear Misato in her bedroom, busy answering a seemingly endless parade of phone calls that demanded her to explain today's unexpected events, and how best to deal with it.

"…and grill them while you can. Yes, I know. I don't care if these bastards are claiming to be volunteers; we need to know who bankrolled the attack and who did the inside job. It takes a great deal of cash to launch such a kamikaze attack here. Yes, I'll try to come down there later; I'll fix his ass if he doesn't crack up…"

While keeping the meat on low heat, Shinji went to the rice cooker and checked if it was still cooking, opening the lid to be sure. _Well, okay, it's ready_, he thought, seeing that the rice was done, before he laid out the plates and the utensils on the table. He then sighed, and told himself, _It's a bit awkward after all the danger we had today, like when we were then eating together, and Asuka's stepmother called up._

Shinji went back to the teriyaki and worked on browning the meat. As he did, although he was surprisingly unperturbed by his earlier actions on the road, he wondered what Rei and Kaworu were doing throughout the afternoon while their car was being peppered with bullets.

* * *

Back down in the Geofront, down at Level B-20, Kaworu asked Makoto Hyuga, who stopped for them while carrying a bunch of reports, having come from the Command Center, which was busy assessing the terrorist attack on the convoy.

"Where's Shinji and Asuka, and Misato, too?" he asked, as Rei stood besides him, listening.

Makoto sighed, still hefting the load on his hands. "They're home," he said. "The Sub-Commander assigned them an agent to guard them while they rest until tomorrow once the yellow alert is lifted. Well, earlier they managed to fight off the terrorists chasing them, and the two Cheyenne pilots helped save the day."

"Why would someone kill them?" Kaworu was perplexed. Perhaps someone powerful was ruthless enough to give orders to kill them. But exactly who?

The bespectacled officer shrugged. "I have no idea, so the investigation's still ongoing. So far we're looking into leads."

Kaworu thought of Asuka, who earlier decided to quit NERV. "Is Asuka still here, yet willing to leave?"

Makoto shook his head. "No, she changed her mind. She decided to stay on instead, so the Sub-Commander reinstated her on the spot. She wanted to take a shot at piloting Unit Two again."

"That's good news," Kaworu said. "If somebody's looking for us, tell them we're taking a break at the swimming pool… We needed to relax."

Makoto nodded. "Okay, I got you and will tell them, so I've got to go now," he said before walking away.

"Thanks," Kaworu said, before turned his attention to Rei.

"You will have to follow me. I know the way," she said.

It took Kaworu and Rei about five minutes to locate an out-of-the-way elevator, which was unmarked yet totally secured with an electronic lock. To gain entry, she entered a password on the lock's keypad, and then swiped her ID card through its slot before the elevator door opened.

"Who's using this?" Kaworu questioned.

"Only the Commander, the Sub-Commander and Doctor Akagi, apart from me, have access," Rei said as she pressed a button going down.

The elevator doors closed and the car began to move downwards, almost dropping fast like a rock as it was an express elevator. The level indicator flashed the numbers quickly as they descended, until the car stopped gently. Now the doors opened, and Kaworu was greeted by a hallway that was barely-lit by a solitary fluorescent lamp and an emergency exit sign. He could also smell a mustiness that was matched only by Rei's home.

On the wall were the words _Artificial Evolution Laboratory – Third Annex_, which meant this abandoned facility was older than NERV, before the larger organization came into being.

"This way," Rei said as she led the way, with Kaworu looking around while he had his hand clasped on hers. He also feigned curiosity, remembering the mental images he had in his mind, using them to construct an imaginary map.

They went around carts that were parked on the side, spangled with cobwebs. There were also stacks of boxes, and capped gas cylinders and drums that haven't even been touched. The rooms along the hall had closed doors, but some of them yawned open but dark inside.

As they walked, Kaworu felt something bristling against the back of his neck again, but this time it was different for he seemed to hear voices, except they were faint and unintelligible. He looked down at the floor; apparently someone was here the last time, with footsteps marked on the dusty linoleum tiles.

"Is there anyone else in here?" Kaworu asked Rei, who shook her head.

"No," she said. "We are the only ones, I think."

Finally, they arrived at a door that was partly ajar, with no light coming from inside, and which the trails of footsteps have led to here. Rei opened the door and felt for the light switch, flicking it on. The fluorescent lights came alive and Kaworu confronted a scene resembling a hospital room.

The room was occupied mostly by a typical hospital bed and carts, and lining the walls were cabinets crammed with bottles and other medical supplies. Larger life-support electronics, still covered in plastic, stood near the bed. A cart with two oxygen tanks was propped against a stack of boxes. On the wall were words painted on in white: _Top, Bottom, Strangeness, Charmed, Up and Down_. As for the bed, the sheets were rumpled and stained with age.

Only then Kaworu heard voices in his mind, but from the past, this time they were coherent and he could recognize the two out of three; he was now hearing through Shinji's ears:

"_T… This place looks like Ayanami's room," Shinji remarked, sounding astonished._

_"Yes. This is her birthplace," a woman's voice answered. "Light and Water, makes up Rei's unfathomable personality and thus reflects the atmosphere and the very nature of this place."_

_Misato cleared her throat, apparently anxious. "Doctor Akagi… Ritsuko, we didn't come here to see this."_

_Ritsuko sighed. "If you wanted the truth, then at least I'm showing who Rei is really is to you," she answered. "Follow me, then."_

Kaworu turned to Rei, who was waiting for him to say. "Is this the place where you were… born?" he asked, his eyes blinking.

Rei simply nodded. "That is the truth," she answered. "Three of me have been born here."

"Now that explains why… you said that you were the Third," he remarked.

"I am the Third, and I am probably the last."

Kaworu pointed at the painted words. "What do those words mean?" he asked.

"They are from quantum mechanics," Rei said. "Doctor Akagi herself wrote them, to explain about my nature."

"Clues about you, maybe," Kaworu said.

"Yes. Quantum mechanics were all about how subatomic particles behave. A quark is the basic subatomic particle."

Kaworu was blinking. "How did you know more of it?"

"When I was my second iteration, I studied the meanings of those words on my free time."

"I see. Why do they have to be important?"

"If I am correct, quarks do things that ordinary physics could not explain at all. Quarks can be in _more than one place_ at a time, and quarks could also _defy time or space_."

"Is there anything else you wish for me to see?" he suggested.

"Yes," Rei answered. "We take an elevator further down."

* * *

Lying on the cot, Ritsuko felt bored, having read all the books that were given to her to get occupied while behind bars. Instead she was thinking of the bad old days, back when she was in the shadow of her mother. Everyone expected Ritsuko to follow in her mother's footsteps, considering the accolades given for completing Japan's then most powerful supercomputer, the _Orochi_, prior to her masterwork known as the MAGI.

Ritsuko felt the pressure, the expectations, and she went through all of them with an iron will, graduating with a rare triple degree in computer science, bioengineering and medicine. She succeeded, but at a price as she watched her mother become enamored with Gendo Ikari, and eventually the root cause of the tragedy on the day the MAGI was activated.

As the only witness, she could remember how the confrontation happened, the exchange of words between her mother and Rei, the strangulation and finally the dry dive down two levels of the Command Center, the late Naoko Akagi hitting the top of Balthazar first, smashing her skull in, before her face caved in once upon landing hard on the floor.

Ritsuko managed the lump in her throat, fighting not to retch. In the aftermath she could not bear to see her mother's remains, zipped in a body bag on top of an operating table, but on another table the dead Rei Ayanami was laid there, her mouth agape and the neck completely bruised in purple and blue. She asked herself why, why did her mother had to do this, and she also wondered why Gendo condemned her, and for what crime?

Apparently Gendo was unsatisfied in manipulating her to obtain knowledge and some sex on the side, his patience with her mother expended that the Rei corpse lying there must have told the truth. After the funeral she wanted to ask, but Gendo did otherwise by begging for help. He was begging on his knees, a strange gesture by a man normally known for his sub-zero personality.

Ritsuko sighed, figuring that Kaji was right in saying that the lone mole on her cheek was on the path of her tears; from the day of the funeral she was sucked into being involved with Gendo, not knowing that she would eventually wind up in this cage, after being manipulated, all because she was competing with another "rival" for his attention.

Rei. A girl made artificially, a piece of laboratory equipment, a tool, built for a specific purpose in Gendo's mind. It was astonishing that she, Ritsuko, was downgraded to a secondary role, after being fed naked to the hungry eyes of SEELE surrounding her, having lost to a girl who had Gendo's nametag on.

Now Ritsuko wondered what that girl was doing at this very moment.

* * *

They were descending in an elevator, as Kaworu gazed at the immensity of the dim chamber, which had some hexagonal alcoves carved into the walls, giving it the atmosphere of a catacomb. Down below, he could also see the remnants of the failed Eva prototypes collected in large pits, metal-alloy skulls, ribs and femurs. Overhead was a gantry crane with its hook and steel cables, and the only lights in this chamber were small orange bulbs affixed to the concrete ceiling.

Once out of the elevator and on the floor, Rei led him down a painted path, across the Eva graveyard for nearly 400 meters, passing an abandoned Isuzu Elf utility truck. Now they faced an armored door large enough for two trucks to pass through.

With unspoken agreement, Kaworu let Rei open a small inset door cut out from the larger door, the girl again punching in a password and swiped the card in to unlock it, and slid sideways. Rei nodded to Kaworu to come.

They entered through the door, and Rei went to a large switchbox beside it and with some strength tried to flip the big switch on. It didn't seem to budge, so Kaworu came up and helped pushed the switch upwards. They could now hear the sudden whine of power being restored, motors spinning, lights being lit, and this time they faced a chamber that Kaworu remembered vividly in his mind.

"This is the Dummy Plug Plant," Rei said. She looked remorseful.

"Yes," Kaworu said, as he held her hand and walked towards the main tank in the middle. On the floor was an unusual diagram, a glyph laid over, but overhead was a huge representation of a human brain, hammered out of steel and carbon-fiber, pipes, cables and wires leading into this "brain". This odd sculpture is then connected to the floor by a single column resembling the spinal column, and below this metal spine was the middle tank. Wrapping the entire circumference of the chamber were two lines lit in green, DNA sequences in letters.

Rei stood before Kaworu, who was still open-mouthed in wonder, and said, "This is the truth about me."

Now the lights on the outer, larger tank surrounding this circle were ablaze, revealing what was left of the Rei clones, floating in the LCL in tatters, dismembered and still disintegrating. Kaworu was speechless, he saw this in his mind before but this time he was now in this very chamber, with the girl he gave his affection to.

Blinking, Kaworu took a breath to center his mind, trying not to be overwhelmed by the carcasses in the tanks.

"Why?" he asked.

"The Commander and Doctor Akagi were trying to build the Dummy Plug," she said. "They, as you may have known, intend to use them to control the Eva instead of us Children."

"And it failed, am I right?"

"She eventually destroyed them, out of her hatred."

"Who told you?" Kaworu asked as he held on to Rei's shoulders.

The First Children hung her head low. "The Commander told me."

This time Kaworu heard in his mind, of Ritsuko's confessions, speaking before Misato and Shinji, on this very spot. Eventually he was now witnessing it mentally, through their eyes and ears, going back in time:

"_These are dummies, and they're all parts for the Dummy Plug," Ritsuko admitted. "We humans found a god and tried to possess that power, and as a consequence the human race came close to extinction fifteen years ago. The god that they found disappeared, yet they decided to remake this god."_

"_And what's this god you're talking about?" Misato asked, her service pistol aimed at Ritsuko's back._

_The frustrated scientist sighed in regret. "It's Adam, and they created a humanoid from it in order to be close to godhood… That is Eva, the ones that you see often."_

_Shinji blinked, still unable to comprehend the enormity of his involvement in this terrible adventure. "Y… You call it a humanoid?"_

"_Yes. The Evas do not intrinsically have souls, but they have human souls embedded in them, and all of them were salvaged," Ritsuko said. "However, the vessel that truly contains a soul is Rei. She's the only one born with a soul, but none of these clones have it. The Chamber of Guf is therefore empty. These…" she swept her hand around, "These things that look like Rei have no souls. They're just empty vessels, shells, puppets, tools... dolls."_

_From the pocket of her lab coat, Ritsuko suddenly whipped out what looked like a PDA. Her face also darkened with odium, teeth clenched in fury._

"_Now… I'm going to fucking destroy them, I'm sick and I hate them all!" she raged._

"_NO!" Misato and Shinji yelled in unison, but it was too late as Ritsuko pressed the "Kill" button on the PDA's display, transmitting the death sentence through wireless network, to the tank environment control computer in the chamber, and the Rei imitations began to disintegrate, their destrudo released against their will... if they had a will, which they truly don't possess. Blood, flesh and organs soon intermingled with the LCL in the tank, turning it into a soupy abattoir of the macabre._

_Ritsuko dropped the PDA to the floor, and went down on her knees, weeping. Misato had the pistol drawn closer to her. Witnessing the resulting gore in the outer tank caused Shinji to go white, bend down and retch, his most recent meal dumped on the floor. _

"_What's wrong with you?" Misato yelled, still shaken. "Do you know what you're doing?" _

"_Yes..." Ritsuko murmured. "I know what I'm doing. Destroying, that is. They're not human, but just imitations of life!"_

_Shinji was coughing loudly, gasping for air, unable to intervene as he listened._

"_You're wrong!" Misato countered. "In my eyes, Rei is still a HUMAN BEING to me, yet you still think she's not just because she screwed up your life or because she's expendable? As her commanding officer, she has become a part of me and my concern, and her being a clone or whatever you're blabbering about isn't an issue anymore!"_

"_I LOST AGAINST THE DAMNED THING!" Ritsuko shot back, still sobbing. "When I think of him–Ikari–I can live though any insult. I didn't give a shit about myself... But he did. I knew that."_

_Misato cringed, breathing shallowly, watching her friend regressing into a remorseful kindergartener, punishing herself. Shinji tried to stand up straight, but he propped his hands upon knees as he shook._

"_I'm really stupid..." Ritsuko bemoaned. "I'm so fucking stupid as my mother! Misato... I was made a goddamned fool and played around with!"_

_Raising her head, tears flying away, the defeated scientist noticed the pistol and screamed, "Shoot me then! Just shoot me! I don't care anymore! I'm useless! I'm a monster!" Ritsuko then curled up to her knees to a prone fetal position and wailed wordlessly._

_But Misato shook her head, as she lowered her gun down and switched the safety back. "No, I can't," she disagreed, sobriety returned to her voice. "You'll look real dumb if you wanted to die."_

Kaworu drew himself back to the present, blinking his eyes twice to recover from the ordeal of someone else's yesterday, yet his hands were still on Rei's shoulders.

"I don't care if you're manufactured or something," Kaworu said. "You're still Rei to me. One and the same, alive and breathing. You still have an identity, even if they say otherwise."

Rei nodded, before silence settled between the couple, as Kaworu pondered at the consequences leading to this horrifying sight right before them. With one hand he caressed her cheek gently.

"Ayanami… I think it's time for me to confess," Kaworu said.

"You may speak," Rei answered. "I am willing to listen to your truth."

Kaworu lowered his head in commiseration, as if to tell her the words he was about to say may not be of comfort to Rei, before he spoke.

"There is something hidden inside you, as you are a vessel for another soul. You cannot see _her_, but sometimes you feel her. The Commander has never told you about this, so I have to tell you instead."

Kaworu brushed his messed-up hair with a free hand, and sighed. "You and I have taken the same form as the Lilim, and we've been here long before you and I have taken those forms, before you were able to acquire an identity different from her, and even before they walked upon this planet."

Rei said nothing, listening as he spoke.

"Eventually the Lilim accidentally discovered what we are, and so they made us into their own image, to contain souls, but we were made differently by two different Lilim, with completely different perspectives, one each with their own agendas, their purpose and goals."

Kaworu now stared into Rei's eyes, cerise upon cerise.

"You and I are keys belonging to them, and they want to use us in order to be the first to win the race in deciding the future of the Lilim... and of the Angels, and possibly of this universe."

Rei blinked. "And you are indeed an…?"

"_Angel_," Kaworu answered, with a tinge of regret in his voice. "Forgive me, Rei, for lying to you, for the deception I made from the start… I am _Tabris_, the Angel of Free Will. I am the last of my kind, and the only one left to take the Lilim's form, to accept the final sacrifice."

The Fifth Children took a deep breath, closed his eyes and concentrated, willing himself to levitate until he was a meter off the ground. Once he was floating in the air, Kaworu opened his eyes, his arms stretched downwards.

"This is the truth about me, the answer to all your questions," Kaworu admitted. "You are also one half of what I am seeking for ages, the lost half which our creators have mourned about. And in case should you want to know what is your true nature is, who is hidden beneath your heart… You have Lilith's soul, just as I possess Adam's soul."

Rei was astonished, her eyes wide-open in shock.

"Though you are dormant and unformed, in some ways you are the _same_ as I am, Rei Ayanami," he concluded with regret. "Heart, mind, yet completely different souls, two for each of us, one each for ourselves… and I am very sorry to tell you this truth, which I think is hurting you… yet I don't want to hurt you, either."

But the First Children went down on her knees, apparently in intense pain.

"N… No," she gasped.

* * *

In mid-meal, with no discussion of the ambush incident whatsoever on the table, Misato's cellphone went off instead, interrupting them all. Shinji, Asuka and Tsutomo suddenly went about fumbling pockets for their phones.

"That's mine," Misato said, as she stood up. "Excuse me, guys, it's in my room," the woman added, walking into her bedroom and picked up the phone.

"This is Katsuragi, who's this?" she asked without hesitating to check the caller ID.

"It's me, Makoto," the man at the other end said.

Misato sighed in relief. "Oh, it's you. All right, tell me what's up?"

"Interrogation's underway on those three terrorists, although it's taking too long," he reported. "Damage control is being worked on, and maybe you should be interested in this… Kaworu's with Rei, and they came up asking me where you guys were, and I told them you were home."

"So… what's the big deal with those two?"

"They looked worried, but they said they wanted to hang out at the pool below instead. Except that I noticed that they were actually—get this—_holding hands_."

Misato shook her head. "Oh, I see. He just wanted to spend some time with her, and he already told me about it during lunch, just before we left."

"That made sense... sounds more like they're dating. Well, what else do you need?"

"Tell Doctor Odani that I'll be coming down later, and that includes you in the discussion."

Makoto sounded surprised. "Me?"

"Yeah, I think she's also up to something, in the same way you do because by now she's probably done with the DNA analysis on Kaworu's blood sample. The pieces seem to be falling into place."

"Right," Makoto agreed, "and you know what? Throughout today Commander Ikari was absent, and only now he's back at work. We wondered what the heck he was doing while gone as we had trouble in our own backyard."

Misato groaned. "Looks like he's shut himself out of the world for a while. Some guys on the top literally lock the door to let off steam, but with that guy's case, I think he's up to something else besides taking a rest."

"I see. Well, I have to get going right now. See you later," Makoto said.

"Yeah, later, Lieutenant. Bye," Misato concluded before ending the call. She then went back to the dining table, when Asuka queried, "Who was that?"

"Lieutenant Hyuga," Misato answered. "Just some important business I have to deal with after this. The attack, that is."

"Ah. Did he mention anything about Ayanami and Kaworu?" Shinji asked after he bit into his portion of teriyaki.

"He said they just wanted to take a dip at the pool."

Suddenly Asuka was laughing. "I was right! Good God, I was right!" she exclaimed. "He's trying to do his Edward Cullen imitation!"

Misato had a quick sweat-drop on her forehead. "What?"

"You know," Asuka said, gesticulating with her hands as she clarified. "Edward Cullen. _Twilight._ Edward meets Bella Swan, that is, and then _bam!_ He falls in love with her."

Misato and Shinji nodded.

"Ah… The movie, huh?" the Third Children concurred.

"Sorry if I forgot a bit about that and the book," Misato admitted.

"Yeah," Asuka said. "I was thinking about it some hours ago while getting my medical records done with, because you and I noticed he's been close to Rei. I don't know whether it's romantic or something between them, but it's surprising because I think he's trying to _thaw her out_."

Unexpectedly Tsutomo guffawed but Shinji quietly shook his head in jest. Rei was indeed famous as an unemotional girl, hence the secret nickname of "Ice Princess" within the NERV grapevine.

But to Misato the odd comparison between that fictional character and Kaworu caused the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, for she watched _Twilight _on the DVD player with Asuka and Ritsuko three months ago. She could even now remember one of the memorable lines from the film:

"_What if I'm not the hero? What if I am… the bad guy?"_

Misato shivered, for Kaworu Nagisa was an unknown quantity, and so did Edward Cullen. Mentally she paraphrased that line, and suddenly she felt like being sucker-punched:

_What if Kaworu is the _bad guy?

"Misato? What's wrong?" Shinji asked, waving his hand over her eyes.

The woman blinked her eyes twice, her thoughts disrupted.

"You were pale in the face. I wondered why you looked startled." he added.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I thought of something," Misato said, feeling apologetic. "Come on, looks like your teriyaki's the best I ever tasted, Shinji," she praised, changing the subject on the dinner table.

* * *

Gendo was waiting at his desk when Fuyutsuki arrived, sated from dining alone down at the Cafeteria. As usual the Commander was in his standard thinking position, and he looked slightly irritable.

"You summoned me?" Fuyutsuki asked, standing still before his one-time student.

Gendo gave out the wordless murmur. The old professor took it as a "yes".

"I know," Fuyutsuki said. "You're probably wondering about that terrorist attack and the weapons shipment."

"Why did you approve the black budget for the weapons?" Gendo asked outright, coherent this time.

Fuyutsuki scowled. "Do you think we could be at ease once all this is over? I feel it's not going to end peacefully. Furthermore, do you think that the Committee would always bow before you? Can we get away with this?"

"They are only deluding themselves in waiting for their wish, and they have too much to expect from us," Gendo answered, apparently dodging the question.

"I don't know, but you and I know that their influence and their anxiety remain enormous. Now if they find out that we're deviating further from what they originally insisted on, it would be easy for them to penalize us. In what form? Don't simply expect them to send in a debt collector or a lawyer knocking on our door. We're balancing on a strand of hair right now."

"What do you mean?" Gendo asked. He couldn't believe that Fuyutsuki somehow had some added confidence he never heard from him before. Normally the old man was contented to remain in the background, present only when Gendo asked him for an opinion.

"If they can play the UN like a harp, it's a matter of time that they might as well drop a bomb on us before we could prepare ourselves. That's what the black defense budget is for."

The Commander only managed an exasperated grumble. Like Hamamoto, Fuyutsuki could be right.

* * *

Rei covered her face in grief, sobbing as she finally knew the truth about Kaworu. But the Fifth Children went down on his knees and embraced her, whispering for forgiveness.

"Rei… I apologize, forgive me for what I said," Kaworu mumbled into her ear.

"But why you have to be here?" Rei pleaded. "Why?"

Kaworu frowned. "I… I have nothing much except to fulfill a sacred oath, an oath I took before the Committee, to do what they wanted. The Complementation of Man and Human Instrumentality, as they named their policies, must be accomplished."

The young man sighed for a breath. "You see, it's a very long story. I was made in the same way you do, but I was raised differently. They taught me everything about this world, but once I went out to fulfill their wishes, and then I met you, everything changed. Suddenly I had a different thought about the Lilim…

"You mean…" Rei gasped, not sure what else to say, but Kaworu began wiping the tears away from her cheeks.

Kaworu took a breath. "At first, I thought that the hopes of the Lilim are to be in tears and suffering, written down in sorrow. They get angry, flustered, desperate, and even consumed over other Lilim, but after a few days being here, I have changed my mind about what the Lilim are all about. I finally understood through the sufferings and lamentations of others, and why they're always the pain in their hearts."

Kaworu looked into Rei's eyes.

"Though I have learned much, in about three days my time here would be over, as the elders demand it. They expected to see what they wanted to see. My inevitable death, as the Scrolls insisted on. But I did the best I could to turn everything around and revitalize the hopes of those closest to me, including yours, before it's too late."

"But what about you?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Kaworu scowled, feeling doubtful for the first time. "I'm not sure, except maybe for what would be the inevitable."

Slowly Rei embraced Kaworu. "I… I do not want to lose you," she whispered. "Please."

"I have no choice, Ayanami… I can't escape my destiny. It's going to happen, it can't be avoided altogether as they have already set everything in motion."

For a minute or so they were silent, both seated on the floor.

"Why is it that you gave us hope… yet you do not seem to have hope of your own?" Rei asked, breaking the stillness in the chamber.

The question somehow caught Kaworu unawares, but he answered, "I am supposed to fight on behalf of the Angels, their hope to win their rightful reward, to live forever at the cost of human annihilation... But depending on how things would play out, I am probably destined to die. To be or not to be, but it doesn't matter at all. Death is the only release for me."

Tears from Kaworu's eyes spattered on Rei's shoulder.

"Don't be angry at me, but in the end… Shinji will be my executioner once I tell him he would have to save humanity at my expense, or face the consequences if he loses."

"Ikari…?"

"Yes. He, in my heart, would be the rightful key to salvation, even if he may soon face tribulation than anything else witnessed in history. The life that escapes being destroyed and obtains the future will be the one left standing, and the Lilim, if they could ever redeem themselves, would stand to gain hope more than I do."

Rei stared at Kaworu right into his eyes and asked, "If you are condemned… Is there any other way you could think of _changing things_?"

"I don't know… Yet…" Kaworu trailed, but immediately Rei's suggestion made sense. He blinked. "Wait a minute. You mean, _changing_ my destiny?"

"Yes," Rei answered.

"How?"

"The future is always uncertain and since it is that way, one could change the future…"

"…By altering the present," Kaworu added, the idea dawning upon him.

"Nagisa, I do not want to lose you," Rei said. "I want you and I to live. I do not want my relations to be lost. That is why only you and Ikari could also change all our destinies. You do not need to die unnecessarily."

"I'm not sure," Kaworu doubted. "But I'll try. Sometimes prophecies, I think, could be broken."

Both Children rose from the glyph-spangled floor, relieved from the emotional ordeal of their revelations. He helped Rei get up onto her feet, pulling her hand with his.

"Would you forgive me this time?" Kaworu asked. He wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand.

Rei nodded. "That would be acceptable."

"And… are you hungry, too? Looks like we're past dinnertime."

"Yes."

* * *

"There's one more thing I forgot to mention," Gendo said to Fuyutsuki. He was in the same thinking position for the last hour. "It's about the Second Children. Why she's still here, not departing, considering the attempt on her life?"

Fuyutsuki sighed, arms crossed over his chest. "Miss Langley's staying in. She asked me if I could give her another chance to be a pilot once more, and yes, I approved her request and reinstated her to active duty. That is my command responsibility, and as your second-in-command, I have the same authority as you are when it comes to dealing with Eva pilots."

Gendo blinked, and he suddenly rose from his seat. "Why did you do that?" he demanded.

"She told me her reasons," Fuyutsuki countered, yet unperturbed by Gendo's astonishment. "Miss Langley intends to reinvent, to correct herself for all of her mistakes and to be the pilot of Unit Two again."

"Why?" Gendo asked.

"Because the professor in me says so, and the students who usually fail under my class often beg me to give them a chance to try again, to make the grade in the next semester, and I don't want to begrudge Miss Langley a second chance. Besides, do you remember the day when I bailed you out of jail?"

At the mere mention of the past, Commander Ikari was suddenly quiet.

"That was the day I gave you a chance to prove yourself," Fuyutsuki recalled, "because you were then looking for me and you also have influence, after I was appointed by the university's regent on the spot as your adviser. I never forget the day of our first meeting."

Scowling, Gendo settled down on his seat, pondering with that piece of his past.

"Now if you have any doubts about my loyalty," Fuyutsuki said, as if he was able to read Gendo's mind. "I'm not usurping your position, nor am I starting a mutiny. I'm trying to set things right as a reasonable man in a position of great, yet painful, responsibility."

"You may leave," Gendo said, keeping his anger in total control. "Get yourself a rest, as you've been too busy all day."

"Yes," Fuyutsuki said, before he pivoted and walked away.

Once the ex-professor closed the door behind him, Gendo took off his glasses and cleaned them with the hem of his jacket. He couldn't believe that tonight Fuyutsuki dared to be so frank and almost overstepped his authority, yet like Hamamoto earlier he cannot deny that his second-in-command was also right. After all, Gendo was the one who invited him into this venture almost a long time ago, to squelch his vehement opposition and because Yui put them together in an effort to continue her legacy.

As he put on his glasses again, he suddenly remembered Rei Ayanami.

* * *

Shinji and Asuka leaned on the veranda railing, sated after their first dinner together since coming out of coma, breathing in the cold December air and gazing at the moonlit night sky, its reflection on the lagoon can be seen shimmering from here. He looked thoughtful, as if the prospect of an optimistic future with Asuka was forthcoming, and he, like the girl beside him, also overcame the initial guilt of shooting in self-defense. Already, Misato went out, heading back to Headquarters on an urgent job, while Tsutomo had to be content with watching a car drifting battle on TV and at the same time exchanging text messages with someone on his phone.

"I wonder what they would be thinking about us if we ever return to school," Shinji said.

"We'll knock them out," Asuka answered before she chuckled. "We'll tell them that we're together from now on, that we're putting all those ridiculous rumors to rest."

"Yeah," he agreed.

"I was wondering if I could make Unit Two work again for me. Rei said that I have to open my heart. How that would be?" she asked.

Shinji turned to Asuka. "Try to make peace with her," he suggested.

"I know. It's just that I have to prove myself and Unit Two that I'm a different Asuka now."

"And how would you say once you're onboard?"

Asuka sighed, not feeling sure, trying to think about it until she answered. "I don't know… No, maybe I'd just say I wanted to be forgiven."

"For what?"

"For insulting her shortly before that Angel in the sky hit my head and turned me into a nutcase," she admitted, before closing her eyes, thinking back on that rainy afternoon of her downfall.

"_You're just my doll, so move like I tell you to, and don't say NO anytime! Why a weapon does have to carry a conscience or a mind? What crap coming from that Wondergirl! Anyway, you must only say 'Yes' on everything I do! Hear me?"_

Asuka pursed her lips. "I have to talk right this time," she said. "If I could remember correctly… If one pisses off a horse while riding, once provoked that steed will throw an idiot rider off his back, so in a sense, horses have feelings and it's the same with Eva."

"You maybe right," Shinji agreed.

* * *

Misato and Makoto entered Natsumi's lab and they greeted each other. After they all sat down around a study table with a notebook computer on top, the young doctor started to explain to them her discovery.

"Well," she began, "having persuaded the BOQ-bachelor officer's quarters-manager to borrow her keys on the pretext of inspecting the rooms for sanitary compliance, I managed to get into Nagisa's quarters while he's out, and I took a few samples of his hair on a comb he had on the desk. The next thing I did was to process the hair strands, put them through the analyzer and after about thirty minutes, I have these results."

Natsumi double-clicked on a report file and the computer loaded it up.

"With the analyzed DNA, I went about matching his sequence with several others in the database, and—you wouldn't believe this but…"

Misato and Makoto blinked in unison, completely astonished after reading the match results. "He's an _Angel?_" they mumbled.

"I'm afraid so," Natsumi admitted. "The results are clear as day. Scared the hell out of me the first time I saw it. His DNA matched positive with several other Angel DNA samples, but the rest of his sequence are human. _Homo sapiens._ And then, just being curious, I also compared his DNA with that of Ayanami—they also _matched_ in most parts."

Misato felt deathly quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "Now that Nagisa is definitely the Seventeenth Angel, do you know what the implications of our discovery would have for us tomorrow if this were to go public?"

Natsumi nodded. "Yes, I'm very aware that it could be disastrous. Total chaos."

"Good Christ… One plus one equals two," Misato murmured, as an odd thought struck her. "Zero no longer becomes a lonely number." She also touched her crucifix as if she was asking for emotional support.

In Japanese, _Rei _also meant _Zero _or nil or nothingness_._

"I beg your pardon?" Natsumi asked.

Misato cleared her throat. "I think Kaworu Nagisa now has a full-blown relationship with Rei Ayanami at this very moment," she decided. "I also think they're even in _love_."

"What?"

Misato explained about Kaworu's developing affair with Rei, and the revelation that dawned upon her while Asuka talked of comparing Kaworu with Edward Cullen at the dinner table, drawing a conclusion in which Kaworu maybe a bad guy, considering that he came from the Committee. They replayed and reviewed the inquest videos made earlier today, and finally she mentioned about the unusual sync rates, and Makoto corroborated this with the data he illegally obtained from Maya's computer earlier this week.

"Now that he's a real Angel, a sentient Trojan Horse, how could we deal with him?" Makoto asked, now looking anxious.

"I'm not sure, but we have to keep this a secret between us," Misato said, pausing to sigh. "I'll deal with him once I see that boy first in the morning, so mark my words. Gonna have to do this quietly or this place would soon be in an uproar. Worse, if he finds out, the Commander may have that boy's head on a silver tray before we could try to get him… if it's remotely _possible_ to make an Angel reconsider his plans."

Misato turned her attention to Natsumi. "Save those files and give me a copy on flash memory before you nuke them off from your hard drive," she ordered. "We can't allow them to fall into the Commander's hands. We'll present all of this evidence to Fuyutsuki once he's available."

Natsumi nodded. "Sure, this one's going to be a hot potato now… and oh, by the way, where's Tsutomo?"

"He's with the Children, doing his babysitting thing for now."

Natsumi made a sour face. "Shit," she cursed. "With this damned yellow alert, looks like I'll have to scuttle our date for tomorrow. I'm sure he's also upset, too."

* * *

Alone in his office, Gendo Ikari was typing a few query commands on his computer, telling the search algorithm to comb through surveillance videos in the past 12 hours since he went down to Terminal Dogma for his reflection. He was wondering about Rei's whereabouts after she left the Infirmary with a clean bill of health, and without his full knowledge.

The facial-recognition algorithm would match every frame of video with a supplied scan of someone's face, and then he executed the command for the MAGI to process.

Several floors below, the MAGI went to action at blazing speed as it used the search algorithm to flip through frames of immense, high-definition video files stored in the surveillance video server, until it spat out the search results with several matching video clips back to Gendo.

He gazed at the results, and he wasn't pleased, the man clenching his jaw, figuring as to why Rei was with Kaworu Nagisa around six o'clock this evening at Gate 18. What were they doing out there, and where they came from? Worse, why they were holding hands?

Gendo fumed. _This discrepancy isn't part of the plan, _he told himself_._

* * *

In the bedroom, where she planned to sleep with Shinji later, and with her laptop connected to the Internet, Asuka opened the browser and entered her mother's full name into Google, and then the search engine brought out several links, including one from a university where her mother once used to work at. Clicking on the link, Asuka went to the website's staff list of past scientists and researchers, and found her old picture.

Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu was there in a formal portrait, then wearing a lab coat, her shoulder-length brown hair formed into a bun, smiling at the camera. It was her, back in good times before she surrendered a part of herself to Unit-02.

Asuka then immediately printed the picture out from a connected inkjet printer in high resolution on photo paper, and grabbed a pair of scissors to cut away the excess paper. She then went out, found a red short candle and its glass holder, a small _bunchin_ paperweight and a box of matches on a table, and walked outside to the veranda.

"What are you doing?" Shinji asked, his TV watching interrupted as he stood up, leaving Tsutomo at the couch.

Asuka turned to Shinji and said, "Gotta make amends."

Shinji noticed the picture. "Uh… That's your mom?"

The girl nodded. "Yes," she answered while propping the picture against a flower pot with the paperweight to hold it in place, and lit the candle in front, cupping her one hand to protect the flame from the wind.

Once done, Asuka stood back and sighed, staring at the impromptu shrine she set up.

"She really looks like you," Shinji remarked with a soft smile after he observed her for a minute.

Asuka smiled back. "Thanks. Never thought of it until now."

Silently Asuka closed her eyes and clasped her hands together. Although she was born a Lutheran, never in many years of her being a self-proclaimed atheist had she thought of praying and of paying attention to her faith, so tonight for the first time she made up a prayer of her own, this time for personal atonement for all of her sins.

_Mama, please forgive me, as I wanted to forgive you._

* * *

While he watched Asuka pray, Shinji saw a brief bright line in the sky, a shooting star quickly fading over Hakone's peaks. He wondered if it was a sign, and he smiled, hoping it was a good omen.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** This is what we get for that "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" saw.

I'll be honest with myself: this chapter has got to be the toughest act for me to follow, as the characterization here sometimes comes so threateningly close to OOCness, and it's very damned emotional. With the pacing I use, I'm hazarding the possibility of completing about 30 chapters or even more, including EOE portions which are in planning, so right now we're at the midpoint.

Although "Lilin" is the _correct_ spelling as mentioned in the Death and Rebirth information pack, I retained the mistranslated word "Lilim" (originally an error on the part of ADV) because for some reason I don't think I want to go over and redo everything; "Lilin" or "Lilim", they mean the same, so I have no regrets in this decision.

OBTW, "Second Section" or "Section Two" refers to a part of the Intelligence Division, also known as the Department of Security Intelligence.

As for fanfic writing, it becomes an enjoyable hobby only when you have been grounded in the requisites of writing, spelling and grammar, reading, research, brainstorming, finding the right storyline you wanted to use, and of course, being creative with ideas. To quote a Somali novelist named Nuruddin Farah: _"Good writing is like a bomb: it explodes in the face of the reader." _

This one's for Alnilam and her hubby, to Karina, DennisSud, NPH, NegativeZero, and Kenshiro aka Pookie.


	20. Reflection of the Winter Moon

_I was born when she kissed me.  
I died when she left me.  
For a few weeks I was alive while she loved me._  
Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957) U.S. actor.  
Said as Dixon Steele. _In a Lonely Place_ (Andrew Salt)

* * *

Gendo Ikari was now on the go, alone, even in this late hour of the evening, roaming the near-empty hallways of the entire complex. Every time he passed yet another khaki-clad employee in his path, he or she gets out of his way as if to acknowledge his absolute authority, and simultaneously fear his presence.

Tonight, he was looking for Rei Ayanami, one of his most valued possessions worth about quarter of a billion US dollars in development expenses, wondering where she and Kaworu Nagisa went to after they were last seen at level B-20. But they were easily identifiable; it was a simple matter of querying the surveillance videos or asking the Section Two suits or security personnel patrolling about.

His main concern was that she was out of his control for too long, that he feared that her so-called "purity" could be under threat of being compromised by "excessive" human contact. Gendo must step in and take her back, discipline her if possible even though she had the brain of a 35-year-old woman, and tell Kaworu Nagisa to back off for a while.

The Commander grumbled at one particular thought: he was like an anxious parent of an unruly teenager staying out too long at night.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 20: REFLECTION OF THE WINTER MOON  
(Weaving a Story, _Carpe Cerevisi_)  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/20/2010 2:35 a6/p6

* * *

They were back in the secluded garden, this time eating their bento box dinners they bought at the commissary. As they ate on the lawn, Kaworu noticed Rei's slightly morose facial expression.

"Are you still upset?" he asked out of concern.

Rei shook her head. "N... No," she stammered, but corrected herself. "Yes, for I have underestimated you. I feel guilty… Yet it makes sense that the truth can hurt."

"Yes," Kaworu agreed. "Throughout the whole time, I was thinking hard about whether I need to tell it or not. But since you were obviously waiting for me to answer your doubts, I had no choice except to do what must be done."

The Fifth Children put down his bento box, and reclined.

"There's a problem, though," Kaworu said. "We can't tell this to Shinji or to Misato; it's almost like the same way they discovered your secret. As far as they're concerned, they'll not take the truth about me very lightly. Shinji has this fragility that could be broken, and I'm still very much worried about him, even though I told him to be firm."

Kaworu shook his head. "If Misato were to know my secret, I'm sure she'll be real angry."

"Why?" Rei asked.

"In her heart, after she lost someone she loved, she still has a dilemma: on one hand her father caused her great pain, yet on the other she has devoted herself to duty, out of revenge, to stop my predecessors from succeeding. I'm afraid I'm not ready yet to confront her if she ever finds out."

"Maybe I could help you," Rei said. "Maybe with me we could explain. You cannot do this alone."

"Perhaps to make them think twice?"

Rei nodded. "Yes, that is correct."

Kaworu hesitated for a moment, before he picked up his empty bento box, beckoned Rei to hand over her box and slid them into a plastic bag. Then they stood up, with Kaworu pulling Rei up, and he said, "I guess it's getting too late, so I'll walk with you on the way home and drop you there."

* * *

With her explosive secrets about Kaworu securely pocketed in her uniform, Misato was heading to her car parked at the linear train station when she found Kozo Fuyutsuki waiting for her besides the woman's Renault Alpine. He was carrying a briefcase, alone and he looked tired.

"You're going home, sir?" she asked.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes, I'm supposed to," he said before sighing. "However, I think we should motor out first down to my favorite spot."

Misato blinked. "Why, and where, sir?"

The older man smiled. "Down at the levy, near my home. From Kaji's stories about you, I know you have a penchant for drink, so I think I would like to have a tipple and some talk. I really needed to get a nasty problem off my chest."

"I didn't know you could still drink," Misato said. "I also thought of talking with you, sir. I have something important to discuss."

"Good," Fuyutsuki said. "I also hope that at my age… God, it's been a very long time… I might still be able to hold my alcohol. Well, shall we?"

Misato grinned as she opened the Renault's door. "Okay, sir. Be my guest."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Major."

* * *

Having accompanied her all the way to the girl's home, despite walking in the darkness away from the Geofront, Kaworu was standing by the door to her flat while Rei swung it open.

"Would you like to come in?" she asked. "Tea again, perhaps?"

The Fifth Children shook his head. "N… No, I'm afraid I'll have to go back quickly."

Rei looked disappointed. "Why?"

In his mind, he thought he saw the glint coming from the Commander's glasses, hence he explained, "I have a feeling that the Commander must be looking for you; perhaps he's too worried. If he asks, just tell him you're alone."

The First Children thought of this: if he lingered too long, their secret could be compromised.

"I'm sorry," Kaworu said.

"It is all right, Nagisa. I will deal with him," Rei said.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow, then, Ayanami," Kaworu answered before he leaned close enough to kiss her on the lips, and this lasted for almost half a minute before they disengaged and stared at each other.

"Thank you," Kaworu said, nodding, before Rei watched him sprint away and make a turn for the stairwell adjacent to the elevator, and only then she closed the door.

She sighed, but nervously hoping that the Commander wouldn't catch up with him.

* * *

Upon rolling off the car train, they drove south on Route 75, passing through two NERV security checkpoints without incident, until they reached Moto-Hakone on the southern shore of Lake Ashinoko. In the village proper, Misato stopped by a local Lawson's convenience store, probably the only one open for 24 hours on the busier Route 1, bought a Yebisu six-pack and a big bag of spiced pork rinds.

Misato then drove a few hundred meters up to the famed levee, which gave visitors a magnificent night scene, with the full moon shimmering on the lake's surface. With Fuyutsuki guiding her, Misato parked the Alpine under an oak tree, got off and brought out the beer and pork rinds on the hood as a impromptu table, with an old newspaper underneath to keep from scratching the blue paint job.

They pulled the tabs off and made the first drink, as Fuyutsuki sighed at the beauty of the countryside at night. He could see afar the faint sodium lamps at the edges of what was left of Tokyo-3, and the dark silhouette of the mountains beyond it. The waves splashed against the levee wall, flying droplets glistening with the moonlight, as the old man could also espy to the right the lone _torii_ arch just off the lakeshore.

"Never thought this place can even be so beautiful tonight," Fuyutsuki commented, holding his can.

"Yes, sir," Misato agreed.

"It's been a hectic day, and we're full of it. You're fortunate to be able to survive this far."

Misato nodded, and then took a swig of the brew. "Almost eight hours ago, Asuka decided to stay in, and before that, we dodged bullets intended for her and lived to tell about it," she said. "Although Kanzaki explained to me that the convoy was a diversionary tactic, we wound up getting more than we could bargain for."

"Why would someone want to kill her?"

"I have no idea, sir," Misato answered, sounding disappointed. "No, really, some people out there who have a reason to hate us. I have a list of suspects behind all that, but they sounded far-fetched."

"They're still looking into such leads, as we all know," Fuyutsuki said, referring to Director Hamamoto and Section Two. "Personally, I was wondering if those terrorists wanted her dead to favor their cause. If so, it would've been a propaganda boon, but why they would go to great lengths to mount such a risky attack?"

"That's the mystery," Misato said, shrugging. "Sometimes terrorist groups would do free-lance work on someone's behalf for a decent fee, I believe, to scare off people or wreck any government."

"I see," Fuyutsuki said, but he thought of Kaworu Nagisa.

"There's another thing I would like to ask. Tell me, is it a coincidence that Nagisa is here?"

"I don't know, sir," Misato answered while picking up a pork rind and munched it. "But now that we're talking about him, there's the good and the bad: good because he seemed to be acting as some sort of a guidance counselor for them, turned their fortunes around."

The woman sighed. "Still, even if he's so much of a blessing for us in the last four days, I still can't shake my doubts about him, so we decided to look a little closer, try to find out what he's made of. That's the bad, by the way."

Fuyutsuki frowned. "Any proof?"

"This time I have the evidence with me," Misato said, as she went back into the car and pulled out a notebook computer. She booted it up and as soon as the operating system was loaded, she inserted the SD card and opened the files that Natsumi copied to her, showing them to Fuyutsuki.

The old man was astonished afterwards. "Where did you obtain all of this?" he asked.

"Had to do much of the sleuthing in secret," Misato answered, setting the computer aside. "His odd sync rates and the way he fiddles the core, his piloting abilities, his DNA structure, and the fact that he's prime Committee property means that we need to be careful when approaching him, but we'll never know when he'll make the first strike. However, if all of this information comes to the Commander's knowledge, he'll probably bag Nagisa and exploit him or even simply kill the boy."

"So how could we deal with him now that he's a potential threat?"

"I need to move in closely and discreetly," Misato said. "Since he's probably the best shot of them all, I'm not sure if it'll work but I'll try talking him out of invading Terminal Dogma, tell him it's not worth trying for. Otherwise I may have to liquidate him myself as a last resort before he makes the final move to contact Adam."

"Now, what if we succeeded, even if it's a dog's chance in hell, turning him to _our_ side?" Fuyutsuki asked, guessing the tantalizing opportunities from Kaworu's remotely possible defection.

The woman smiled faintly. "That would have been very amazing, with many possibilities. I could probably get more information from him about what's the Committee is really up to. Heck, if he were to become our trump card we could also turn the tables on them. Right now all I have are bits and pieces."

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Unbelievable," he muttered before he chugged down his beer. "Do anything it takes before he breaks into Terminal Dogma, while maintaining minimal collateral damage. Regardless of what Commander Ikari insists on, you have my authorization, carte blanche and non-paper. I'll deal with him myself, and we'll keep this to ourselves."

"I'll try, and we're ready," she replied. "However, there might be some difficulty ahead."

"What?"

"I think he's also in love, sir," she remarked.

The old man was surprised. "With whom? Ayanami?"

Misato nodded. "Ever since he arrived, he became much closer to her, and more so after the failed compatibility test. Just before we left and got nearly wasted down the road, he told me he wanted to go out with her. They're not really telling me much about their relationship, but by my woman's intuition now they're probably on first base."

Fuyutsuki chuckled. "I wonder if Ikari would be able to accept that, but they'll have to be careful as their affair isn't a part of his plan. All his bets are riding upon her."

Misato shrugged. "Whatever it is, their relationship could very well affect everything we do. Good or bad, I don't know except to wait and see unless I get to him, face to face."

"Again, let us try turning him around and see what happens," Fuyutsuki said. "In his human form, I hope he actually has a _conscience_ better than the others."

"I hope so, even if it's a long shot," Misato agreed.

Suddenly Fuyutsuki held an upraised finger at her. "And, oh, I forgot one more thing…"

The ex-professor pulled out a small box from his jacket and placed it between the beer cans and the pork rinds. Misato opened it, and she was surprised to see a pair of collar pins denoting lieutenant-colonel rank, one wide black lacquer band on top and a very narrow black band below on a field of gold, the moonlight giving them a soft shine.

"I… I'm flattered, sir," Misato mumbled, blinking her eyes twice.

"Since I think you needed more responsibility," Fuyutsuki said, smiling, "and you're performing well in the last few days, especially with courage under fire, well, I'm promoting you to a higher rank. Congratulations, Lieutenant-Colonel Katsuragi."

* * *

Driving an unmarked Honda Civic that he requested from the motor pool, Gendo Ikari was behind the wheel, as he was heading towards Rei's apartment block. He was hoping to catch someone besides her, and if possible yank him off her body. He also had his personal side weapon in his pocket, a Walther PPK/S pistol, loaded with 9mm hollowpoint rounds in the clip, and being stone-cold he wouldn't hesitate to shoot if necessary.

Gendo turned right, and braked at an empty parking slot. He got off and slammed the door, walking briskly towards the elevator in the apartment's lobby, cluttered with trash as he sidestepped them.

Now he was at her front door, and Gendo knocked thrice. He could see in the gap under the door that the light went on, and Rei opened the door. She looked surprised to see him alone.

"Good evening, Commander," Rei said. "What is it that you need?"

The older man murmured, taking a brief note of her long-sleeved men's shirt she was wearing for sleep, and then said, "May I enter? I want to go around and check."

Rei nodded as she let him inside. With one hand in his pocket, gripping the pistol, he searched every room and space in the flat, and even opened the closet and the veranda doors. Nothing to see.

He then turned his attention to Rei, who was following, and said, "I want to warn you about Nagisa."

"What is wrong with him?" Rei asked, noticing his stern expression.

Gendo leaned closer to Rei's face, and spoke. "Although I ordered you to socialize with him, to find out his motives because he belongs to the Committee, I warn you to be very careful. If you go a step too far and I find out, Rei, then I will decide his fate _myself_. Remember that, and your duty and your existence depends on what I tell you to do."

Rei nodded. "I will, Commander," she replied, trying not to let her composure collapse in the face of Gendo's controlled temper. The mere mention of the word _fate_ could mean anything, including the possible use of physical violence.

"Now, tell me, what you were doing with Nagisa throughout this afternoon? And where have you been?" Gendo asked.

"We had tea, and we talked. He left me alone later," she said, but inwardly her pulse rate was quickening; she was fighting the fear in her heart.

Gendo grumbled, rejecting her terse explanation. "The cameras at Gate 18 _don't lie_. You were with him in there at six in the evening, which means he spent the whole afternoon with you before coming at that gate, and where did both of you have gone to afterwards?"

Rei felt frightened this time, her apparent lie failed to convince him as his freezing eyes burned into her cerise pupils.

"I… We went swimming," she stammered.

"What did he told you in all that time?" he demanded.

"We talked about my recovery, and what happened during the compatibility test. He never talked about himself, only about me."

Gendo scowled. _He's telling nothing, yet there should be a slip of his tongue, to give away his true intentions. _Now he noticed that Rei was afraid, so he quickly softened his expression on his face and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Rei," Gendo apologized. "I'm doing this for your own safety because if anything serious happens to you, then all of what we worked on for years would be in vain. I do not want to lose you this time, and I will keep that promise."

The Commander then turned away and stormed out of her flat, leaving Rei behind. The First Children could hear from downstairs his car starting up, and then quickly motored away until the sound faded. Once she thought he was gone, Rei slowly sat on the floor, completely shaken as she wrapped her arms around the knees, terribly concerned for Kaworu.

* * *

Feeling elated with her new rank, Misato watched Fuyutsuki, sans jacket, take a sip and exhale as they savored the night breeze blowing over the lake.

"I once used to be here, hanging around during lunchtime or when off-duty," Fuyutsuki began recalling, while nursing his drink. "Back in the days when we're just Gehirn, running the AEL and we were making breakthroughs by the day, some of it making headlines. To most people, they think we're like the Salk Institute or CERN; we are to the human genome what those two are into vaccines and nuclear physics. But we're really working for a powerful group, building a man-made god."

"The Committee?" Misato asked. She thought of the five old men whom she met once in the holographic communications room and debriefed them on Shinji and Unit-01 as the boy's representative.

"SEELE," Fuyutsuki corrected her. "They're all behind this, those old men behind their domino blocks, meddling with us even up to now. Well, I once tried to blow their whole charade wide-open, but someone told me otherwise that before I could reveal the truth behind Second Impact, they'll take me out of the picture.

"Eventually I wound up joining Gehirn, as a product of damage control, and hoping that I might do something right from within. Oh, that someone was Yui Ikari, and she was the only one on equal footing with those old men, taking the fight within their system, and she stayed on as a member for Shinji's sake."

Fuyutsuki sighed, as he gestured at the oak tree branches over their heads. "I was here on this very spot," he said, "talking about her intentions as she took care of Shinji. She found out what they were up to at the time, and vigorously opposed their plans, so I supported her struggle.

"But once they were closing on her, there were just three options: either to be liquidated, give up and follow, or simply do the unthinkable. In defiance, she chose the last one, by conducting a contact experiment in Unit One as a test subject, even if it was half-finished at that time."

"Which since then is the only one to surprise us more than any other Eva in our inventory," Misato added, knocking back her drink.

"Yes," Fuyutsuki agreed. "All along I realized where she placed her trust and faith in. Not with SEELE, not with her husband, but _me_. And after that contact experiment I felt deeply responsible for her safety, but she had to do it, she obviously intended to remain in that Eva to look after Shinji, even if—pardon me—Gendo tried to bring her back. We salvaged what was left, and instead we created Rei out of her DNA. Much to his chagrin, Rei has her _own_ personality, so since then he tried to instill his persona into her."

"The product of your frustration…" Misato mentioned the words he said earlier shortly before they were disrupted by Unit-01.

"And all of Ikari's hopes," Fuyutsuki completed the sentence, and the ex-professor shook his head. "Yes, it's hard forgetting anymore."

"There's another thing that I would like you to look into, sir," Misato said, changing the subject.

Fuyutsuki frowned. "What's that?"

"There appears to be some indications that other Evas are being built elsewhere."

Misato again pulled the notebook computer to her and went to a folder where she stored some intelligence reports that Makoto Hyuga gave to her a few days ago. She opened the documents and the pictures, showing them to Fuyutsuki. This time he looked grave.

"That's troubling news," the older man worried. "If all of that information that your source had given to you are correct, then it appears that they're arraying the other NERV branches against us by independently developing these Evas without our knowledge. If that's the case, it's not impossible that they could be using the data obtained from the Dummy Plug System and S2 Engine development. Thereafter, they could utilize that information into these new Evas."

"Which leaves me wondering what the hell they're going to do with them," Misato said. "That's so much money to spend, especially for a weapon too powerful than a nuclear arsenal."

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "I don't think we're due to have some sort of a final, massed Angel attack against us. I think they have a darker motive beyond our imagining."

* * *

Kaworu looked back at the apartment complex, now very far from where he was as he walked back to the Geofront. He wished he could come in and spend the rest of the night with Rei, yet the Commander spoiled that chance. He was also worried about her being in that man's hands, deciding every twist and turn of her life like a puppeteer.

Disappointed, Kaworu hiked on with his hands in his pockets, reviewing the day's events in his mind. He wondered if his presence caused a widespread chain of reactions, some of them he never foresaw. Furthermore, he knew well that his days are numbered, that the old men were waiting for him to fulfill their wishes. He remembered them now, and reminded that there will be another debriefing due to be made before the SEELE congregation tomorrow night.

He played around with Rei's earlier suggestion of changing things and altering the present to affect the future. Yes, it's possible, as the girl couldn't accept his inevitable fate.

Then how?

A thought came up, a brilliant plan that sounded outrageous in concept.

It was possible, but in practice could also be a very long shot, and would take some effort to make the plan work. He will have to find out and study other dormant faculties he possessed, as he only had abilities to absorb other Lilim's memories, levitate and generate an AT Field.

Kaworu nodded. _Yes, I'll show them what they wanted to see._

* * *

"Damn," Misato muttered. "Never thought it would be so soon, now that there's the last Angel in our midst. Afterwards, what's going to happen?"

Fuyutsuki's forehead furrowed. "It's very uncertain," he said, "and since I don't think we'll have a peaceful end to all this, I approved the black budget for new weaponry should things come to worse. As far as I'm concerned, and since Commander Ikari's leadership is faltering along with the growing discontent within the rank-and-file, not to mention the diminishing relationship he has with SEELE, I'm doing my best to keep things under control; I don't want to be there standing like a fool while people die right in front of me."

Misato sighed. "I have to admit," she said, "in some ways you're what my father should have been."

"Why?" Fuyutsuki asked.

The young woman drank some of her beer and said, "You have this heart, selflessness within, and you possess an integrity that doesn't yield to corruption or malice even after many years, and of course you're up to the challenge now to set things right. Above all, you're never _ambitious_.

"My father, on the other hand, was selfish and obsessed with his own work, which is why sometimes I had little respect for him even after all these years. He died trying to get me out, however, and so later I joined NERV, not because I wanted to avenge him, but to escape his shadow."

For a brief moment, Misato looked down into the gaping orifice of her can, and shaking the contents to see if there was still some beer left over. She then picked up another piece of pork rind and crunched on it.

"In a way," she continued after chewing and swallowing, "and I never intended to flatter you much, sir, but you're like a father to the most of us, looking after us, and maybe worrying as well. I swear there's some who look up upon you as an example, and I'm not alone in saying this, and when you're not around, they become worried. For the life of me, however, I haven't asked you this, but… why did you remain lonely?"

Fuyutsuki propped his chin, thinking until he sighed. "I… I had a deep affection for Shinji's mother, yet I didn't admit it at all, fearing that I could very well get myself in trouble if I did. Yes, I kept this secret of unrequited love in my heart for years, and instead, as a tribute to her, I poured my efforts trying to make the so-called 'future of mankind' a reality."

With longing, the ex-professor made a soft beat with a fist upon his thigh. He could picture the day he first met Yui in his classroom, standing before him with a folder in her hands, wearing a white coat over her light floral-patterned dress. For someone so brilliant, she was also beautiful even without much makeup; a gentle face with dark green eyes that radiated intellect and a passion for life.

"But really," he said with regret in his voice, "I wished I could just have the time to know her more, and regretfully I should have admitted my feelings to her a long time ago. From that day I met Yui, sometimes I daydream of her, and often my heart aches with regret every time she's in my mind, even though the Commander has grown obsessed with her ever since she was lost into Unit One."

Misato shook her head.

"Sometimes I wished I had the will to tell him to let go, think of what he's doing to our world, to us, and especially to his son," Fuyutsuki said, and he took a swig. "But it's his ego that's in the way. Worse, the Committee is unstoppable, as the ball's already rolling even before you came here. For now, I think we'll try to delay the unavoidable before it knocks on our door."

The older man looked up to the sky, having spotted the streak of a meteorite burning up quickly into the darkness as it appeared.

"Anyway, going back to her, she told me this…"

_Fuyutsuki looked puzzled. "Humans create Evangelion in imitation of God... Is this what we're really aspiring for?" he wondered._

_Yui nodded. "Yes, Professor," she replied, still using his old professional title. "Humans can only live on this planet, but I have a vision: Evangelion can live eternally... together with the human soul that dwells within it."_

_They could feel the breeze blowing across the park and beyond the levee, tree branches swaying in the wind. Birds could still be heard chirping, as they flew from branch to branch. Yui now began to pick up Shinji from the stroller, and hefted the toddler upon her bosom. The woman looked into her son's face and smiled at him, and he giggled in return._

"_Even after billions of years," Yui continued, facing Fuyutsuki while she rocked Shinji in her arms, "when the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun have long gone into dust, it will still exist as long as that one person within still lives, though it's also a very lonely journey."_

_Fuyutsuki nodded and smiled lightly. "If you succeed, it would be the eternal and enduring proof that humankind has existed, and would be judged by others with that proof."_

"That is her intent, her mission, an idea that the Eva should be a universal and living symbol of human triumph in the face of difficulties throughout its evolution, but she did not wish to see it turned into a weapon of mass destruction for the power-hungry, as in the case of our past history. Obviously I think she foresaw that Shinji would become Unit One's pilot because in her mind he's least likely to use Eva to terrorize mankind."

The ex-professor closed his eyes for a while. He ran a hand through his hair, and sighed.

"In the process of trying to carry on her legacy, while having to bear with the Commander's tendencies, _all_ because of her, I have a good reason to pay more attention to the Children, especially for Shinji, who's taking much of the brunt more than any of us. Yes, everytime I see them go out to battle, deep inside me, I always wonder why do we have to send these flawed young people out there, all because the fate of mankind depends on them, and in the same way that I felt accountable for Yui's life, I also have a deep sense of responsibility for their well-being."

Fuyutsuki turned to Misato, and said, "Since you're their guardian, understand that more than ever the Children are vulnerable, so keep on protecting them, as though they're your siblings."

"It's my responsibility, and always will be, sir," Misato answered.

"Not just that," Fuyutsuki said. "We're all responsible for everything he does."

* * *

In Mexico City and on a sweltering afternoon, a man was running through the narrow alleys of a vast slum, being pursued by a pair of men coming behind him, shooting with silenced pistols. He was breathing profusely, sweating, desperate to get out of this claustrophobic maze yet confused as to where he was supposed to go. He could hear dogs barking at him, some of them tugging against their chains and threatening to bite him. He crashed into trash cans, corrugated cartons, piles of empty PET bottles, or clotheslines laden with wet laundry. His feet sometimes found a muddy puddle or worse, dog poop. But the squalor or the dirt was irrelevant, nor the slum-dwellers' indifference was of his concern; survival and escape were the only things in his mind.

Suddenly a man blocked his way, standing tall. The fugitive was taken aback, and was about to make another detour into yet another alley when he heard a muffled pop and a can landed on the cracked pavement with a clank, and a hole shot right through.

"W… What the hell do you want?" the fugitive demanded. He could now make out, from the man's silhouette in the dim light, a pistol in his hand with a sound suppressor screwed in. For a second, the grim determination on the man's face nervously reminded him of a deer hunter.

"Simple," the hunter answered, quickly aiming the weapon straight into his eyes. "You die."

The fugitive never heard the near-quiet 9mm shot that drilled into his skull, blasting his brains out from the exit. He, the victim, was Seymour Nunn, the famous astronomer who purportedly discovered the meteorite that crashed into Antarctica fifteen years ago, now known forever as the Second Impact.

The hunter walked over to the astronomer's corpse, purloined his watch and wallet, and then pulled the trigger twice, the corpse shuddering from the bullets, before walking away. If there were witnesses, they wouldn't dare to report, as this slum was part of a crime warlord's empire and they would assume that it was yet another daily drug slay.

The death of Nunn was necessary to protect their secret; after many years Nunn was planning to destroy the well-constructed whitewash with his revelations. By now a couple of hitmen like him were somewhere at the other side of the city, trashing up Nunn's home, destroying any possible evidence their victim would divulge to the world, before setting the whole place up in flames.

By the time he was in the clear after three miles away, the hunter pulled out his phone from the jacket and dialed. He was standing in front of a cantina, and a pair of drunks staggered out of the door, heading home.

"Yes?" the other man on the line answered, his voice scrambled.

"It's done as you wanted. Made it look like a simple robbery," the hunter said.

"Most excellent. I'm transferring the rest of the payment to your account as promised."

The hunter nodded. "Thanks, Mister Chairman."

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** There were several revisions of this chapter, and in the process of finding the right flow, I rejected some (yet to be reused sometimes later). I liked to give Fuyutsuki a chance to open his heart to someone he could actually confide in, and at the same time look into some sides of the other characters. Again, it's a tough act while writing this, especially with the character development, and digging up source material to add more strength.

The title of this chapter is based on the fact that Fuyutsuki means "the winter moon", and it's also the same name of an IJN destroyer, hence the moonlit December night setting for their drinking binge. Some of the place names in the fic are real, so I'm thanking the folks at Hakone for their tourist information website and maps.

I'm also highly indebted to Rachel "Reichu" Clark and her gang at for their invaluable wealth of Eva information, as well as to the pioneering efforts of Brendan Jamieson, Patrick Yip, Bochan Bird, the guys who worked on the translated Eva TV/movie scripts, and many others in the fan community. Without their decade-and-a-half-long intensive research work, it would have been difficult for me to get past Chapter 10.

More coming up later!


	21. Graveyard Shift

The killer was dressed in black, with his favorite killing weapon holstered behind his back. He was on top of an electric post, wearing well-insulated gloves, planting a small plastic explosive charge on the transformer, careful not to come close to the live lines. He would remotely detonate it as soon as he positioned himself on the balcony a floor over Katsuragi's flat. Once the power was down, he would get in and kill the girl and their guardians, but leave the Third Children alive.

Personally, he was excited about looking forward to look at the woman's face for any final reaction, before shooting her in the head and then the heart, just like her lover.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 21: GRAVEYARD SHIFT  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/26/2010 3:10 a6/p6

* * *

Director Shuya Hamamoto was back into the interrogation room, after guzzling a large mug of coffee and two bars of Calorimate to add more stamina. He was bent on getting his results from one of the surviving International Resistance members, who was sitting on a chair, cuffed and looked determined not to sing. He looked American, white and in his thirties, and with a stubble on his chin, and his eyes looked as if he had seen his share of violence.

Hamamoto sighed, and began to ask this man for the umpteenth time.

"All right, you're trying my patience today, William Swinton," he said. "Who funded your venture to attack one of the Children today… No, damn, I mean yesterday afternoon?"

Swinton snorted, but inwardly he was laughing at Hamamoto for forgetting the time on the clock above their heads: it was past twelve midnight.

"According to Interpol and FBI records," Hamamoto read from a stapled printout, "You're an ex-US Marine, dishonorably discharged after five years of service as corporal due to an infraction, then joined the IR around 2010."

The old director cleared his throat.

"You were involved as a suspect in at least eighteen incidents against the United Nations alone, evaded arrest thrice, had a prison sentence for six years for manslaughter and treason, but reduced to two years thanks to some lawyers… and what a country you have, a lawyer for almost every American."

Hamamoto glared at Swinton. "But since you messed with us, this time I don't think you'll be out of here."

"I ain't gonna sing to the likes of you," Swinton retorted. "Name, rank, serial number. That's all you gonna get from me."

Hamamoto bit his lip, trying to control his temper after his men ate all seven hours of grilling these thugs. All they did was to say the same damned thing all over, so he suspected that while serving in active military duty, they were taught about interrogation tactics and what they were expected to endure if captured.

But after an hour of asking the same questions, the old director had enough.

In order to break this dreary holding pattern, and possibly to save his standing, it was now time for some drastic measures. He left the room, nodded to the two agents to keep an eye on Swinton, and walked to the desk, picked up the phone. He then dialed up the crew chief in charge of the Entry Plugs down below at the Eva cages.

"This is Sergeant Kasuga speaking," the other man at the end answered. "What can I do for you?"

"Director Hamamoto here," the old director said. "Listen, I have a little request that must be done immediately. Here's how it works…"

* * *

Kaworu Nagisa was back in his quarters, with the desk lamp on, as he couldn't get himself to sleep. The kiss still lingered in his mind, and his heart finally knew the right answer to the question that previously gnawed him after rescuing Rei.

Now he wondered what better he needed to do, and since the small room had a computer and a television set, Kaworu grabbed the remote control and turned on the TV first, to find a movie on air right now. There was an informative caption on the right-hand side; the movie was _William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet_, the modernized Baz Luhrmann version, pre-Second Impact.

Now he began to watch Romeo Montague go to a side passage and espy Juliet Capulet on the balcony, contemplating as she watched the stars. The Fifth Children was mesmerized, as the characters went on exchanging verses, of love, passion, hatred, with the war between the families in the background, taking place entirely in Verona Beach.

Eventually he came upon the denouement, in which because of miscommunication the star-crossed lovers die by their own hands, followed by the grieving of both families, regretting their actions and paying the price for their feud.

Satisfied once the credits began to roll, Kaworu now had an idea, so he shut off the TV and got up to turn on the computer. There was a webcam attached to the monitor, he opened a video-recording program, and the camera's LED power indicator blinked, ready to film. Kaworu took a deep breath to calm down.

"Before I would like to explain, first I want to admit…" he began, the love theme still playing in his mind.

* * *

Misato parked the Alpine right in front of Fuyutsuki's home, and the old man got out. As he felt for the keys to his door while holding his coat and briefcase, Fuyutsuki looked back at her and said, "Well, it's been a pleasure talking to you."

The woman nodded. "Me too," she said, smiling.

"There's one thing I like to say before you go."

"What's it, sir?"

Fuyutsuki sighed. "I beg your pardon, but I wonder if you still loved Kaji."

"How did you know?" Misato wondered.

"He admitted to me as he got me freed. Apart from seeking the truth, even at the cost of his life, he also said that for all of his mistakes in life, he loved you and so he wanted to entrust you the task of dealing with his unfinished business."

"That's one of my imperatives now, sir," Misato said. "It's the only way I could to honor his memory."

There was a moment of silence between them before Fuyutsuki broke the silence. "We'll have to be very careful from now on," he said, having opened the front door.

"I will, sir," Misato avowed. "I thank you for the honor of sharing yourself with me," she added, feeling grateful. "I'll see you later, then."

"You too," Fuyutsuki answered. "Be careful down the road, Katsuragi."

"No problem," she said, smiling while opening the Alpine's door. "Thank you and good morning, sir."

Fuyutsuki now watched Misato start the car and then she motored away from the curb. Once the taillights winked out of sight, he went inside and closed the door, and in the living room, he switched on the table lamp before laying his coat and briefcase on the rug.

He then sank down to his couch and lay there, wheezing profusely as the alcohol had exacted a toll on his 60-plus cardiopulmonary system. More importantly, however, he was at least happy within to be able to talk to someone other than Gendo, confiding to Misato all of his feelings and his intimate secrets; talking with Gendo was like walking on a minefield, as he picked his words carefully before that man's presence.

Fuyutsuki glanced at the bookshelf opposite him, mostly a collection of fiction he gathered over the years. Reminded of one of his fictional favorites to kill time at the boat city back then, reading the weighty _Lord of the Rings; _at the time the Children were falling apart, he sometimes compared himself to Gandalf trying to counsel Denethor, the secretly deranged Steward of Gondor; he also compared this uneasy alliance with the relationship he had with Gendo, as teacher and a student respectively.

In his mind, Gendo was regressing like Denethor, consumed completely by his obsession, all the while forgetting his responsibility as a leader of a great scientific-military complex in threat of being assaulted by a powerful enemy. In response as a second-in-command, Fuyutsuki made it a personal obligation to resolve every NERV problem before they could overwhelm them in the end. He realized that in the long run, he could not stomach the idea of watching his subordinates die; he must take matters seriously as a leader, right in front, among the troops.

As for the question of Kaworu Nagisa, he hoped that somewhere in that Angel's heart, there might be a thin chance, however a human trait of conscience, to reconsider his plan to invade Terminal Dogma. He prayed that resolving it would not require violence and destruction on Misato's—and Shinji's—part, as with the case of previous Angel attacks.

* * *

Somewhere near the Eva cages, in a room shut off from the world, a bunch of men were gathered around a coffin-like tank placed on the floor. Presiding over this gathering was Director Hamamoto, along with four agents and Kasuga, the Eva crew chief, who was nervously sworn to secrecy.

"Are you sure this'll gonna work, sir?" Kasuga asked, highly doubtful. His hand was over a valve connected between a hose snaking into the tank, an isolation chamber, and a bigger stainless steel tank full of pressurized LCL. The tank was normally used for medical purposes to oxygenate patients, but for now its secondary purpose as a terrible interrogation device would be put into use.

"Don't tell everyone about this," Hamamoto answered, "but yes, I'm sure. I want to crack open this sonofabitch. It's taking me too long, along with his asshole buddies, so I hope this time we could get what we want."

He could see Swinton, still blindfolded, banging on the Plexiglas window, with one agent beside the tank, ignoring the prisoner's desperate pleas as he had a microphone suctioned to the window, ready to record everything onto his laptop computer.

"All right," Hamamoto said to Kasuga, nodding. "Give him the drink."

Kasuga opened the valve and LCL was blasted into the tank, with Swinton being splashed inside, banging on the sides. He didn't expect that the old director would resort to this infamous tactic of "water-boarding".

"You old nut! Get me out of here!" he screamed, before spitting out the blood-smelling liquid.

"Tell me who bankrolled you," Hamamoto shot back. "Give me names!"

"I told you I ain't giving anything!" Swinton spat.

The old director shook his head. "Goddamn, I thought you have balls!" he exclaimed. "You call yourself Force Recon? C'mon!"

The tank was now halfway full, further causing Swinton to double his banging and yelling.

Hamamoto was relentless. "Names, places, dates! Tell me, you sonofabitch!" he raged.

"Screw you!" Swinton cursed, spitting. "You can't get anything from me!"

"Talk, jarhead, or you'll be having more bloody orange juice than you could drink in a lifetime!"

The LCL was now dangerously close to touching the window, threatening to drown the occupant, and suddenly Swinton finally cracked.

"All right! All right! You win! I'll tell! I'LL SPEAK!" Swinton screamed.

Hamamoto nodded to Kasuga to cut off the LCL flow, and he sighed. The audio recorder was still rolling, and the agent in control nodded in satisfaction. He was getting it all on file.

"Now who gave you the order, bankrolled this kamikaze attack of yours, and the exact reason for it?" Hamamoto demanded.

Swinton was breathing profusely, swallowing hard. "H… His name was Oda," he stuttered at first. "He called us up and told to capture this Langley girl. He also promised payment if we did, and as an extra, waste Major Katsuragi so that we could get a bonus."

Hamamoto frowned. "For what?"

"He wanted her dead once he bags her… Shoot the girl himself!"

The old Director's mind began to play the surname around like a Rolodex of personnel, trying to place it somewhere until he finally knew who Oda was. He looked at his subordinates and sighed resignedly.

"We have now known the enemy," Hamamoto said at last, "and he's within our ranks. I need this Oda be bagged ASAP, and I want him alive!"

* * *

Misato drove back to her flat, nearly inebriated, trying not to fall asleep on the wheel as she drove slowly at less than 40 kilometers per hour, despite the apparent treachery of the road ahead of her.

Once she parked the Alpine at her slot, Misato staggered out of the car and glanced at her wristwatch. It was 12:36 in the morning. _Oh, good,_ she thought, the woman taking out her jacket and the bag with her laptop and the disc inside, _I think I could still make it for a cup of coffee._

Misato glanced up at the floor where her home was. Behind the curtains, there was the flicker of the television set still turned on. _Must be Kanzaki, watching TV,_ she guessed.

* * *

The killer, now positioned on the veranda and right on the floor above Misato's home, heard her park the car and slammed the door. As she walked towards the building, he unholstered his suppressed Beretta 92F and checked the weapon and its ammunition. He also felt for his supply of concussion grenades, attached to his belt.

Because of the evacuations following Unit-00's destruction, the whole block was now free of people, and Misato's flat was the only sign of human existence in a two-kilometer radius. This made it advantageous for the killer, who relied on stealth and speed, to rig the remote-detonation explosives to cut off the telephone and power lines supplying her flat.

The killer now wore his night-vision goggles, mounted on his head and flipping them into his eyes, and held the electronic remote detonator, preparing for his one-man assault.

* * *

Misato walked to her front door and took out the keys from her pocket, but because Kanzaki was on guard, she pressed the doorbell instead.

"Who's it?" Tsutomo asked, speaking through the doorbell's intercom as he peered into the peephole.

"It's me," Misato answered. "Look, I'm only with myself."

With one hand holding the Glock, Tsutomo opened the door and he was surprised to see Misato, almost flush with red as the woman took off her shoes.

"Where have you been?" he asked, holstering the weapon back into his harness, relieved to see her back.

"Had a little drink down south," Misato answered. "The Sub-Commander asked for it."

"I see," he said, taking hold of her belongings as Misato hobbled to an empty chair at the table. There the woman wiped her face and sighed.

"I'll make some coffee," Tsutomo said as he went to the cupboard and took a pair of coffee mugs, before opening two packets of instant coffee and dumped them in along with hot water from the airpot.

"Thanks," Misato said, shaking her head as she put her service pistol and cellular phone on the table.

Once they settled down with their hot java, Misato was the first to ask. "How's it going while I was gone?" she questioned before drinking.

Tsutomo shrugged, before he set his weapon back on safety and tabled it. "Nothing eventful," he reported, "except maybe I heard Asuka talking in her sleep. 'Mama', she said."

Misato chuckled. "I've got some good news, partner," she said.

Tsutomo cocked an eye at her. "What?"

The woman took out from her pocket the box containing her new rank pins, and opened it. "The man promoted me to lieutenant colonel," she said.

Tsutomo grinned, examining the pins under the light. "Well, damn," he drawled in awe. Congratulations, ma'am. Didn't know it. You should be celebrating right now."

"It'll be official tomorrow," Misato said as Tsutomo pushed the box back to her, before she pocketed the box.

"On the other hand, there's some bad news," Tsutomo said. "The guy who discovered that Second Impact meteorite fifteen years ago was found dead. In Mexico City, of all places."

The woman was wide-eyed, her giddiness cut out. "What? The _Seymour Nunn_?"

"Yeah, it's over the news."

Misato scowled, having a sudden feel of the hairs on the back of her neck was stirring. "Isn't a coincidence?" she said aloud.

"What did you say?" Tsutomo asked out of concern.

"I am the _only_ Second Impact survivor, and that lying astronomer there laid claim to have discovered it before it hit Earth. I didn't believe his bullshit story for years, as I knew the truth, but now I'm suspecting that he was probably murdered before he could spill the beans."

"For what?" he asked before darkness unexpectedly came upon them. The electricity was out, and immediately they grabbed their pistols and ducked down, preparing for possible danger as they readied their weapons.

"Shit," Misato cursed the blackout. "I think it's not over yet," she muttered.

"Yeah," Tsutomo agreed, feeling for the little Surefire torch he had in his pocket, and pulled it out. "Okay, I'll try to get to the Children and keep an eye on them. You know what to do."

Suddenly the veranda glass panels were shattered, and they heard an object clattering on the floor. Instinctively Tsutomo yelled, "GRENADE!" and both went prone, covering their heads and ears with arms.

An explosion of white light, accompanied by a loud bang, nearly blinded and rendered them almost deaf.

* * *

A couple of minutes earlier, Shinji woke up to hear the front door being closed, and followed by the muffled sound of conversation going on, figuring that Misato had finally come home.

Satisfied, he wrapped his arm upon Asuka's sleeping figure, and sighed. But before he could close his eyes, he suddenly heard a very loud bang coming from the living room. This startled him greatly.

"W… What's going on?" he loudly demanded, bolting up from the bed.

The girl was also instantly awakened by the grenade. "Huh?" Asuka gasped.

In the dim light they saw the bedroom door being slid open with a loud thud, and Tsutomo was standing right there with his weapon in right hand. The man was also smarting from the concussion grenade's after-effects.

"Kids! Better get to the other room!" he ordered, pointing towards the spare bedroom's open doors. "NOW!"

* * *

The killer jumped off the veranda's edge, landed on his feet, and immediately peered in with his NVG. He then whipped out his pistol and sought out Misato, who was lying prone on the floor, just behind the table, and fired.

But his first shots only hit the chair and table legs, disintegrating into splinters, and Misato quickly rolled to her right, ducking behind Pen-Pen's refrigerated home. He cursed, and the woman retaliated with her service pistol, forcing him to take cover.

Now he noticed that there was another set of sliding doors on the veranda, leading to the Children's bedroom. He went there and yanked the doors open, and then aimed right at where the kids were laying at.

Instead he was greeted by Tsutomo's Glock and a tactical flashlight shining into his eyes, and the agent blasted away with a couple of shots. The glass doors were blown out as the killer went for cover, mumbling more curses. He pulled off another flash-bang grenade and tossed it right into the bedroom, before it detonated.

Again the killer went in, aimed the weapon through the tritium sights, trying to find his target. However, Tsutomo lunged at him from out of nowhere and his NVG was knocked off his head. Suddenly he was now blinded by the darkness, and the agent began to wrestle for his weapon. Struggling to keep his gun on-hand, he tried to fire, but the bullets perforated the ceiling above them, sprinkling them with paint and wood splinters.

Tsutomo kicked him in the groin, nearly incapacitating the killer and letting go of the gun. Not giving up, the killer pushed him off and whipped out a dagger from the back, then rushed at Tsutomo. But the agent sidestepped, grabbed the killer's right wrist, and delivered a punch and another to the ribs, before taking hold of the dagger and threw the killer to the wall, right into the bookshelf.

The killer was now sprawled on the floor, and Tsutomo was about to deliver a hard kick, when he grabbed the agent's leg and tackled him down. On all fours, the killer got a choke hold on Tsutomo's throat, and dug his fingers hard in a bid to strangle the agent.

However he heard a noise, looked up to see Misato swing a wooden chair at him, smashing it into his face and chest. By the sheer force of the impact, the killer was stunned, thrown off Tsutomo's chest, and landed on his back.

"DON'T MOVE!" Misato yelled at the nearly-unconscious killer, aiming her gun, as Tsutomo went on his feet, walked up to the killer, rolled over and pinned him down face-first with arms to the back and a knee jabbed to the spine.

Breathing shallow for a moment, Tsutomo now tried to question the killer, whose face was bleeding. "Who the hell are you?" he demanded. "Who and what sent you here?"

The killer merely groaned instead. Frustrated, Tsutomo added more pressure on the killer's arms.

"C'mon, answer me! Who are you?"

"You wanna know?" the killer replied, gritting his teeth. "I'm supposed to kill her!"

"WHO?" Tsutomo snapped.

"The girl!"

Still covering Tsutomo with her weapon, Misato now looked enraged. Just behind her, Shinji and Asuka were blinking, before it dawned upon the Second Children that she was the prime target, her initial revulsion and shock gave way to a quick upswell of anger.

"You…" Asuka mumbled, quickly turned cross and she was about to rush towards the killer when Shinji restrained her with his arms.

"No!" he blurted.

"I want to kill that bastard myself!" Asuka yelled, struggling against Shinji. "I THINK HE KILLED KAJI!"

"Let them keep him down!" Shinji countered. "He's still dangerous!"

But Asuka was boiling with fury, even as Shinji held her at bay.

"I need something to tie this sonofabitch," Tsutomo ordered, and Misato immediately went to her room. In there she bent down to open her toolbox, picked up a roll of duct tape and returned to the Children's room. She then handed the roll to Tsutomo, who was still keeping the pressure on the killer, and the agent went about binding the tape on the killer's wrists and feet. Once done, Tsutomo rolled the killer onto his back.

"All right," Tsutomo said. "What's your name?" he demanded.

"It's not of your concern, dipshit!" the killer shot back, and spat at Tsutomo's face. The agent winced for a second before wiping his face with a free hand.

"Who sent you here?"

"I'll not say!"

Grim-faced, Tsutomo nodded to Misato, as if asking her to take a turn in questioning the killer. She then pointed her weapon close enough to the killer's head.

"For whom you're working for? The government, the UN, the Committee? Who?" she asked loudly, but the killer said nothing. Incensed, Misato grabbed the killer by the collar and dragged him across the bedroom and out onto the veranda. There, with all of her strength, pulled up the killer onto a chair, pinned him with her weight and choked his neck right on the veranda's railing. As she did, Tsutomo pulled out his cellular phone and began calling up his boss.

"Are you the one who's with those trying to kill us? Who sent you? Did you kill Kaji?" Misato questioned.

The killer merely squirmed, not uttering a word.

"Goddamnit, ANSWER ME!" Misato raged, tears coming from her eyes.

The killer snorted. "For an agent, he was such a philosophical fool!" he muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. Misato slapped him right across the face, and then jammed the pistol's barrel on the killer's temple.

"Now, I ask you for the last time," Misato said, fury laced in her voice. "Who sent you here to do your bloody work? WHO!"

Strangely, the killer relaxed himself. "You know, I'm a mere instrument, and there's a higher power that's all behind this. You'll never win this time and…"

The killer clenched his jaw harder and in a few seconds he began to convulse. Misato suddenly let go and backed away, as she knew by the smell of burnt almonds what poison the killer used to end his life. The two Children were shocked, and Tsutomo looked angry, feeling cheated.

Once the killer was finally silent and slumped on the chair, Misato hung her head and whispered, "The bastard just bit on some cyanide."

Misato slowly walked back into the bedroom, went down onto her knees and wept, angrily pounding her fist on the floor, almost quietly cursing before she was joined by Asuka, who likewise cried onto her shoulder as she hugged her guardian. As they watched both women sob, Tsutomo and Shinji felt defeated. Even if it was too late to be able to get some answers, they finally found Kaji's murderer.

* * *

After he finished recording his video message, Kaworu picked up a blank CD from a spindle and inserted it into the computer's DVD drive. He then burned the finished video clip to disc, and afterwards he picked up a marker and wrote down the kanji for the name of his recipient on the burned disc, before putting it into an envelope.

Once the task was over, Kaworu turned off the computer and the desk lamp, and lay down on his bed. There was a new day ahead of him, even if the three remaining days could also be his last.

He hope they would soon understand his purpose for being here.

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** It's short, but otherwise important. Writing this took just about two nights, while battling a toothache in the wisdom tooth.

Hmmmm… anyway, I read some of the older fics I had in my collection, trying to see if they could size up. These days since Chapter 9, and after analyzing someone else's fics, here's my rule of thumb: try to maintain the balance between dialogue and description, but don't try to embellish too much description for every line of dialogue; it's like putting them into a straitjacket.


	22. Before Daybreak

Down at the Geofront, in the Section Two Annex building, Keith Sanderson was busy at his cubicle, feeding sheets of paper into a shredder, trying to destroy some of his work while his computer was running a wipe program to destroy any digitized documents and other information in the hard drive. He was doing all this to cover his tracks before the whole NERV security apparatus could nab him.

He was mad at Oda for going ahead, when it would've been easier to just wait for Asuka and take her out of the picture. But Oda was under pressure, and that killer's non-cooperation had hurt him. Now it was up to Sanderson to do the job alone, and if necessary, attempt to sabotage the rest of the entire facility.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 22: BEFORE DAYBREAK  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/8/2010 22:34 a7/p7

* * *

Years ago, Tsutomo's father once told him that revenge was a double-edged sword, and always came with a price (apart from the oft-quoted advice about digging two graves for vengeance): _eye for an eye may sound right, but hatred makes the avenger blind_

.

He'd remember that adage well, dispensing it whenever someone hunger for vengeance, to use a wrong to correct another wrong. But really, it required a strong degree of restraint and common sense not to fall into the revenge trap.

With what's left of his coffee in the mug, Tsutomo took a sip and sighed, as he watched the killer's corpse being zipped up, laid on a stretcher and taken away by the coroners. Director Hamamoto and his Section Two suits occupied Misato's flat, cordoning off the premises with crime-scene tape. There, agents in white forensic suits went around taking pictures, gathering and bagging evidence, and recording every detail while working under battery-powered spotlight rigs. Misato had also commandeered a vacated flat (abandoned, really, after Unit-00 obliterated much of the city, forcing carpenters to drop the repair work) next door, and turned it into a temporary workspace for the Section Two investigators.

For now and in that room, the woman was sitting on a stool, nursing her leftover mug of coffee, staring distantly, somber, and deep in thought. Meanwhile Shinji and Asuka were also seated, yet anxiously waiting. The whole room was itself unfinished, still painted on with primer and some scaffolding draped in clear protective plastic, and at the far corner there were unopened cans of paint. On top of a work table was an LED lamp, flooding the room with white light.

After both adults were checked over by a pair of paramedics, Director Hamamoto told Misato and Tsutomo of the killer's purported identity, an Eiji Oda, who was actually part of Section Two's surveillance apparatus, working as a double agent inside the Japanese government with the suppose mission of providing intelligence for NERV. The old man added that the agent was a former North Korean intelligence operative during the Second Korean War, switched sides to the United Nations, became a naturalized Japanese citizen, before two years ago he was loaned over to NERV for his expert services. The director admitted that in order to unravel the killer's identity, they had to resort to unethical methods on one of the IR terrorists. He did not, however, elaborated on those interrogation methods.

Misato then said that although she was thankful for that information, she admitted frustration for not able to take Oda alive. She asked if this Oda really worked with Kaji, and Hamamoto said they did on several occasions in the field as operatives, trying to keep tabs on their opposite numbers in the UN and the Japanese government.

In Misato's case, the chance of consummating her revenge was thwarted, her lover's murderer cheating by poisoning himself. God knows what secrets the killer had in his brain, and this knowledge could possibly be encompassing, innumerable and explosive. So many questions yet remained unanswered, with the killer silently carrying his riddles all too soon to the crematorium.

Now Tsutomo wondered if, after all violence directed against them in the last 24 hours, they could still make a dead man speak. There was still the worrisome prospect of more moles in the system.

"Who the hell sent him here?" Asuka asked, breaking the silence between them. She was referring to her would-be murderer.

Shinji frowned a bit, as it was probably the umpteenth time Asuka was trying. "That's the same question I'm always asking myself," the boy said. "Not until we finally get the answers."

"Ah, okay," Asuka agreed. "I'm sick of being chased by someone trying to kill me with a reason I don't damn know."

"Whatever… I still have to protect you, no matter how."

"You sound corny. I can handle it," Asuka said. "I'll shoot again if necessary, just like yesterday."

Shinji shook his head. "No way, you can't do this alone. It's my… No, it's our responsibility to keep you safe. Gonna have to stick along with you."

Asuka sighed. "But I still have the right to defend myself if _you_ go down, Invincible Shinji. Remember that, and I'm still stubborn as ever."

Shinji groaned, giving up. "Never mind."

Suddenly, Director Hamamoto walked in, prompting Misato, Tsutomo and both Children to rise from their seats.

"What's up, Director?" Misato queried.

"Although we can't find anything on your man, one of my agents found a suspicious van downstairs, just a hundred meters away from here," the old man said. "They also found the transformer blown with explosives, which explains for this blackout on your block."

"And…?"

Hamamoto sighed. "After they managed to break open the van, looks like he forgot to destroy his cellular phone and computer in there, so good for us, bad for him. I asked my men that they must be checked over for any possible leads we could find, to follow where and who's his real employers."

"How long it would take?"

"Not sure, but since this Oda worked with classified information, we'll have to decode whatever secrets he have in his hard drive and memory. Wouldn't take much once we bring them down to the lab for further analysis, where we have the necessary tools."

Misato nodded. "I see."

"Anyway, Major…" Hamamoto trailed.

"The Sub-Commander promoted me to Lieutenant Colonel this evening, sir," Misato corrected him.

Hamamoto cleared his throat. "I mean, Colonel, while we finish cleaning up here, I recommend that for the duration of this emergency, and for your own safety, you and the Children will have to vacate these premises, go down to Headquarters and get some sleep at the BOQ, so bring anything you deem as necessary. It's the most secure place we still have."

The old director now turned his attention to Asuka, from his pocket he brought out what looked like a small spray can, and handed it to the girl.

"This here, young lady," Hamamoto said, "is a can of Mace. Keep it, and use it just in case. Should some punk get you in trouble, aim and blast it at the punk's face."

Asuka nodded, as she shook the can and read the label. "Okay, sir. Thanks."

"Good," the old man approved, before focusing on Misato and Tsutomo. "Now I'll have to order everyone at the checkpoints to double-check every damn vehicle passing by and coming in and out of the base. This time I don't want to have this incident and yesterday repeated again."

* * *

The twelve monoliths were once again present, an emergency meeting in progress. Behind his own monolith, Keel was seething with fury, having seen the efforts of one of his agents come to failure. All was left was a pair of cards in his sleeve, ready for another move on the poker table, and Keel had also invested a huge stack of chips in the middle of the table.

SEELE 06 was the first to inquire. "What is the purpose of this meeting?"

"One of our executive agents is dead, and what we need is to look into other options," SEELE 01 responded.

"Any options we wish to use?" SEELE 09 asked.

"Yes," SEELE 01 answered. "Apart from our Angel, we still have one agent left inside to do anything he must to accomplish his objective. It is unfortunate that our executive agent on the outside has not cooperated properly with our mole. Worse, he acted too rashly."

"Yet on NERV's side there were casualties in that convoy," SEELE 05 added. "Judging from their reaction capability, they were insufficiently trained and armed to stop their attackers. That would make our job easier once the day comes."

"There will be no question that soon Colonel Quaritch's men, in their small numbers and excellent training, can easily overpower NERV's security forces." SEELE 03 remarked.

"Don't be so sure, gentlemen," SEELE 04 sighed. "There is a problem, though."

SEELE 01 coughed, a bit surprised. "What is it, then?"

"According to some recent satellite photoreconnaissance results," SEELE 04 reported, "there appeared to be some significant activity going on at their supply yard, with the arrival of several shipping containers of unknown content."

"Show us your proof," SEELE 01 said.

Several pictures materialized from out of nowhere, hovering before the monoliths. They were all satellite photos of NERV's supply yard at Sengokuhara, north of what used to be Tokyo-3. Below the foothills in the north, a set of rails ran from west to east, and south of that was a large complex of warehouses and to the right was a cluster of container vans. In the middle of the photo was what appeared to be a pair of forklifts hauling their load from a freight train onto trucks, while cluster of men surrounded the vehicles; some of these men were armed.

"That is not looking good," SEELE 01 muttered. "When those photos were taken?"

"Just yesterday," SEELE 04 said. "At the same time while the assault on the convoy took place."

Behind his monolith, Keel clenched his jaw. He couldn't believe it, realizing what was going on… and he banged his fist on the desk. The whole ruse made sense.

"The convoy was a diversion," SEELE 01 said aloud. "They used her as _bait!_"

Immediately the other monoliths were whispering, muttering in disbelief.

"Do you wish to have our agent on the ground to find out what's inside those containers?" SEELE 04 quickly recommended.

"It must be done," SEELE 01 answered, trying to contain his anger. "Their parcel could be anything. In reaction to this unusual activity, does anyone wish to proceed to the next step?"

Eleven other "ayes" rang out before him.

"I want him to look into that immediately," SEELE 01 ordered. "Of course, it is necessary that the Second Children must be eliminated immediately; if she successfully takes hold of Unit Two again, it would complicate our efforts. We need to remove any obstacles in preparation for the awaited day; we must force that Third Children ready by weakening his will and morale, make him submit, and that is what our Angel should do!"

"Why don't we ask our agent to monitor him, should he does something that is _not_ in our plan?" SEELE 06 suggested. "Frankly, he's still a wild card even if he's been in your care for years."

"Make that happen as well," SEELE 01 agreed. "If that Angel defies our directives, expose and turn him over to his death in the hands of Unit One to fulfill the prophecies, and if we find out that Ikari or any of his subordinates are trying to outsmart us, then we will advance the clock and throw anything we have at them."

* * *

While Misato and the two Children were back in their flat, busy packing their bags and preparing to leave, Hamamoto, Tsutomo and a field agent were hunched over Oda's laptop, now placed on the work table and turned on. Presented on the laptop's display was the login screen, customized with the picture of the killer's favorite AV idol, scanned from a porn magazine, her name printed over the navel; she was half-naked, wearing only the top of a sailor-style school uniform, her huge bust size threatening to rip open that thin garment, and that was all.

Hamamoto shook his head. "That sex-crazed prick," he muttered. "Got any clue what that dick could use as a password?"

Tsutomo shrugged. "Dunno, sir," he doubted.

The agent working on the laptop frowned. "This guy's obviously using Linux, sir, and unless we decode his hard drive I'm not sure what flavor he'd installed on this machine. Assuming that he's an advanced user… Hell, no, a _hardcore hacker_, I think he might have installed an encryption program to make sure no one could use it, and if we entered the wrong password, we could run the risk of destroying whatever's inside the hard drive. However, we're lucky there's no fingerprint scanner on this machine."

"Looks like we're really up to a real bad boy," Tsutomo remarked.

The old director sighed. "Tell you what, son," he said to the young agent. "If you're not sure, we'll bring this to Doctor Akagi. She's the only one, in my book, with more experience working with computers than any of us, and even her subordinates. Heck, if she could power the MAGI with even a car battery, I'm sure she could also deal with this little number. We'll ask Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki to pull the necessary strings. Now, what about the phone?"

Oda's phone was now connected to the field agent's laptop with a data cable. The good news was that they were able to read off the phone's address book, crammed with hundreds of numbers; however, most of the numbers may not be traceable at all.

"It'll take some time to trace all of them," the field agent said. "Some of them are either belonging to pay phones, or calls made from elsewhere. Worse, his callers maybe using some sort of a relay network to lose the tracers."

"Okay," Hamamoto said to Tsutomo, and gestured at the phone and the laptop. "You take these down to the lab, and then scan the phone, but if we can't open that laptop, it'll be up to Doctor Akagi to help us crack the hard drive. Otherwise the last thing we needed is to be peering into someone's gun barrel."

* * *

Afterwards, with Director Hamamoto insisting that he would follow them later, they were now heading towards the car train station, in two vehicles, to go down to the 'Front. Riding with Asuka in one of them, an armored Chevrolet Suburban, Shinji looked out at the Hakone night scene, wondering. The back of the SUV was filled with most of their baggage, including a big cooler containing Misato's treasured stash of Yebisu, two cases worth of the brew covered in ice cubes. Following them a few meters from the SUV's rear, Misato was behind the wheel in her Renault Alpine.

He remembered the final words of Kaji's murderer.

"_You know, I'm a mere instrument, and there's a higher power that's all behind this…"_

A higher power… who or what was it? He didn't know, but perhaps Misato could fill him in the details later.

Just then Asuka rest her head upon his left shoulder, still asleep. Shinji nodded; it was okay. He then glanced at the road ahead of them, with Tsutomo doing the driving alongside an agent.

Now he wondered why would someone wanted to kill Asuka. Apparently she was too important to those killers, their reasons still largely unknown to him. Was she an irritant, a thorn on their side? Is the attempt on her life part of a bigger, sinister plan? Now, considering that they were Eva pilots, responsible for commandeering the most powerful weapons in existence, it comes to no surprise that someone out there, with immense influence, wanted them dead.

Shinji then thought of Kaworu's motives. Exactly what was he doing here? Is it because he was lonely that they—whoever they were—sent him to become his friend and an ally? Or because of his unknown origins he could be under suspicion? An enemy?

It was unthinkable. Since he arrived, Kaworu proved himself to be trustworthy, a peacemaker like no other, yet he recalled how Asuka told them that Kaworu was like that nebulous vampire character in that movie, a gray area where the distinction between friend or foe had blurred.

Shinji frowned. He felt uneasy about the idea of Kaworu as a potential enemy, so he decided that he would have to ask him face-to-face as soon as they meet again down at the 'Front.

* * *

In Tsutomo's case, he was fighting the pangs of sleep trying to take over his system, while with his hands on the wheel. He'd been up for most of the night after a day full of action, and despite his training he was tired, really yearned to hit the sack, so the best he could do to stay up was to make small talk with his fellow agent alongside him, the same agent who tried to open and access Oda's cellular phone and laptop.

"I'm supposed to go on a date later today," Tsutomo said to the agent, whose attached ID card carried the name of Shinichi Morisato and a rank of lieutenant. The younger agent had both phone and laptop wrapped in a plastic bag, and this parcel rode on his lap.

"With whom?" Shinichi asked.

"Doctor Odani. Had a lot planned for the day; checking out the amusement park, and then dinner for two. But, shit, we had to call off the whole thing because of the damned yellow alert."

Now their small convoy halted at the sentry post, and two guards went over and turned on their flashlights, shining the beam upon the SUV, before one of the guards, holding an extended mirror, went about checking the vehicle's underside for any bombs. The second guard knocked on the window, and Tsutomo lowered the glass separating them, handed over a sheet and his ID card. The guard looked over both documents twice, before returning them to Tsutomo and then saluted. Tsutomo returned the salute and said, "Thanks. Good morning."

"My pleasure," the guard replied before the window went up, and Tsutomo stepped on the gas, driving the Suburban forward to the tunnel leading to the car train. The agent glanced at the rear view mirror, watching the guards go over Misato's car, doing the same process.

"How long do you think the alert's gonna last?" Shinichi wondered.

Tsutomo shrugged. "Not damn sure, except it should end this afternoon, you know that. Hope nothing bad happens today so it shouldn't get upgraded to red status."

Once past the thick steel armored door, Tsutomo drove the Suburban into one of the slots on the train, and the locks clamped on the tires. The older agent drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for the train to go.

"What about the weapons that got here? Where and when we would be using all that?" Shinichi questioned. "Armageddon?"

"In case we piss off even an army of millions," Tsutomo answered, "and we would have to hold 'em back. That's what we're supposed to be prepared for."

* * *

With her Alpine parked in the car train's slot and its tires locked in place, Misato sighed, closed her eyes and relaxed against the headrest.

Exhausted, she felt a mix of emotions, a result of many events for more than 24 hours; she was elated for being promoted and thanked for her actions under fire; she was happy about her charges' turnaround; she doubted Kaworu and his sketchy background; she was victorious in battle.

Yet she was regretful for one thing: the killer denied her the chance to consummate the revenge she promised herself before Kaji's grave. If it weren't for the poison capsule, with her fury Misato would've squeezed the answers from that Eiji Oda and shoot the sonofabitch afterwards.

_What's next?_ Misato asked, pursing her lips as she felt the car train lurch forward for its journey down to HQ. She was damn sure only one party was capable of issuing commands to destroy them, but until she could gain some evidence of their wrongdoing, Misato placed her greatest suspicions upon SEELE.

* * *

Suddenly Gendo Ikari woke up with a start from his bed, sweating. In the near darkness, he blinked, breathing profusely. He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on, and the bedroom was now in light. Amongst the immense clutter of his bedroom, the alarm clock on the desk told him it was almost 2:30 in the morning.

It was a nightmare, and in it, he saw himself transported back in time, standing before the half-finished Unit-01, behind the armor-plated glass windows of the control room. Unit-01's face was plugged in with a dozen cables, and her eyes stared back at him. However, the atmosphere around him was engulfed in chaos, with technicians scurrying about, shouting, and frantically trying to save his wife. He tried to move, but his feet were stuck on the floor, forcing him to witness the pandemonium and of his wife's fate. He tried to speak, but no words came out of his mouth.

Gendo felt helpless. It was the moment when Unit-01 took her away, and reduced the woman into a liquid state.

_Why?_ Gendo wondered. _Why could you do such a thing? Are you doing this for Shinji? Why can't you say something, what have you done?_

_Why did you leave me?_

For a minute Gendo tried to clear his mind, before he rose from the bed, walked up to get his clothes and then headed straight to the bathroom.

As he turned on the faucet, the shower head spraying him with warm water, Gendo sighed and decided to remember something else to squelch the nightmare out of his mind; he recalled the time when he found himself right on top of Yui's form.

Her scent, the warmth, softness and the smoothness of her skin, the soft lips, and that gentle voice, as he ran his hand over her brown hair. He could still remember those sensations, and he felt hard all over again. There was no other woman like her. Nobody. The Akagi women were nothing compared to Yui.

Back then he felt lucky, the woman of his dreams, her presence compelling him to do anything, even if he must move mountains.

Just for her.

Oh, how much it took for him to reach her, because Yui had everything he wanted in a woman, and _more_; she was the key to the fulfillment of his burning ambitions, her connections influential and powerful, and through Yui and her knowledge he thought he finally possessed the power of gods, with the ability to remake the world as he wanted, to transcend his limitations.

But without warning Unit-01 snatched her from his presence, without even saying farewell or something, except maybe…

"Damn," Gendo muttered as he shut off the water. He stepped out of the shower, toweled off and went about dressing himself.

Finished, Gendo stared at himself in the mirror, fully-dressed yet without the glasses. His face, framed by the beard, had the faint scars of bruises and scratches, reminders of his violent past. Age has just caught up with him, furrows and creases crisscrossing his forehead, and sour creases at the ends of his mouth. Only his eyes, despite having little sleep, remained black as coal, determined and yet in rare occasions they can become soft and pleading, hence the tinted glasses.

The man before the mirror sighed, and whispered, "We're having so little time, and we've lost the Lance to the moon, the instrument that could prevent us from making our hopes coming true. The Angel's coming soon, and once it's dead… there's nothing to stop us. Not even the old men."

Gendo sighed and straightened himself.

"Yui… You just have to wait for me," he promised, and picked up the tinted glasses off his desk.

* * *

The trilling of Kozo Fuyutsuki's home phone made the old man wake up, and he rose from the couch. He shook his head and blinked, before taking hold of the phone's receiver and said, "Hello?"

"Good morning, sir," Hamamoto said. "Sorry for causing much of a fuss, but someone broke into Katsuragi's home, and attempted to assassinate the Second Children. We also have a breakthrough after we were able to extract some info from one of the terrorists."

The news blew away Fuyutsuki's stupor. "What?"

Hamamoto explained everything, what he knew, and by the end Fuyutsuki frowned. "Anything else?" he asked.

"We do have some potential evidence, to give us some vital leads," Hamamoto said, and mentioned about the killer's cellphone and the laptop computer.

Fuyutsuki questioned, "Any progress so far on those things?"

"I'm afraid we really need to crack them open, so I had them sent to the lab. Apart from that, it's necessary that we must keep the Children safe, and I ordered Katsuragi to get the Children down to HQ."

Fuyutsuki glanced at the wall clock right above the bookshelf. 2:46 in the morning, its hands told him. "I see," the old ex-professor said.

"Should we encounter difficulty with those gadgets, I request that we enlist the help of Doctor Akagi, and let her give a shot at cracking."

Fuyutsuki had a double-take. "Why her?"

"Because she's the best, bar none, sir. In her profession, she goes where even my top techs can't sneak in."

The old man nodded. "Okay, Director, I'll see what I can do. But first I need someone to pick me up and bring me to HQ. While I wait, I'll make some coffee. Sorry, I had a bit of a hangover."

"Sure, no problem," Hamamoto agreed. "I'll see you later, sir."

Once the man on the other side broke off the connection, Fuyutsuki placed the phone back into the cradle, sighed, and figured that it was time to get going. He then shook his head and mumbled, "All the trouble because of one woman..."

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** It's been a tough month lately, trying to fight off a bad case of writer's block as a result of my increased workload IRL and last week's illness. I had to concentrate on what to do next, plan the succeeding chapters before writing.

Here's some tips: (1) beware of the excessive use of so-called "Swifties" (after Tom Swift, the main hero in stories written by Victor Appleton II) as dialogue attributions (see Stephen King's _On Writing_, at page 125 in the use/abuse of such attributions); (2) using adverbs is like walking on a minefield; (3) _said_, IMHO, is universally effective at all times for character dialogue, even under fire.

This chapter is dedicated to Weltall Elite, whom I believe he's still assigned to Airborne, still on his tour of duty.


	23. The Morning After

_Half-naked and only wearing a white loincloth, Kaworu saw himself kneeling in the middle of a circle formed by twelve men in black hooded robes, all chanting in some ancient language. The obsidian marble floor had an unusual glyph edged in white, perhaps obtained from ancient Cabbalist symbolism. Only the single brightest light was on Kaworu, the centerpiece of this ceremony, while at the far four corners of this dark chamber were burning torches, symbolically placed to represent the four elements, four seasons, four directions and four cycles._

_A man, in a robe like the others but looking portly, slowly walked towards him with one hand bearing an incense holder, smoking and swinging in rhythm to the man's pace; the other hand holding what looked like a dagger. His ceremonial chest plate, wrought of gold and brass sheets, was decorated with twelve differently colored jewels, sparkling brilliantly in the light._

_Kaworu never moved an inch, as this was an auspicious ceremony, and the man circled him, wreathing the young man in frankincense smoke, chanting seemingly incomprehensible words. The gift for languages allowed Kaworu to translate the man's speech from Aramaic:_

"_The son of ancients, of a distant past, created by men beyond the stars, a gift towards to the fulfillment of our aspirations, the one perfect instrument among a few to restore all life to the first form, to bring about peace and equalize all beings, to purify and cleanse souls free of sin and pollution._

"_Hear us, o Lord, for we call upon you to bless our messenger with your mercy and guidance. Hear us, for we hope to obtain the future and to bring about the destiny of man to come as one, in peace as one being, everlasting and free."_

_The man now faced Kaworu, glancing down upon him, and revealed himself with a quick uncovering of his hood._

_SEELE Chairman Keel Lorenz, solemn in leading the ceremony, now slowly and carefully touched each of Kaworu's shoulders with the dagger-like object, as though he was blessing or knighting him. As he did, he continued murmuring the words:_

"_The symbolic Spear, used in the sacrifice of the Son of Man, the instrument that confirmed His divinity, is to bless our messenger with your providence, to ensure that our hopes would be fulfilled, even if challenged by many of our profane enemies. May it please you that this young man will accomplish the tasks he would be facing."_

_The old man withdrew the spearhead back into the folds of his robe._

"_Now, rise, young man," Keel spoke, and Kaworu got up to his feet._

_The old man took a breath for a moment, and said, "Will you accept this most holy and sacred task given to you?"_

"_Yes," Kaworu answered._

"_Do you have any conscience or misgivings about this task? If so, state the reason why."_

"_No, I have not and my destiny has been set."_

_Keel nodded, as if satisfied. "Now that you have accepted your destiny, you, Tabris, are to fulfill our divine will."_

"_I will not fail," Kaworu promised as he bowed before Keel._

_In unison, the others in the circle all chanted in response:_

"_May the Lord bless Tabris to fulfill the sacred prophecies of our forebears; may woe, brimstone and fire befall upon those who oppose us."_

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 23: THE MORNING AFTER  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/15/2010 23:33 a7/p7

* * *

After being helped by Tsutomo on their way with their baggage from the parking lot, Misato, Shinji and Asuka arrived at their designated quarters at the BOQ, the largest NERV could provide for visiting delegations, like a hotel suite: there were four beds, a sofa and a coffee table, TV, stereo and a computer; a simple dining table, a kitchenette and small fridge, a bathroom, and opposite the front door was a wide window with a panoramic view of the Geofront.

But for now it was dark outside, and having set down their baggage onto the floor, both Children plopped themselves onto the beds without a word and, to their surprise, quickly fell asleep.

However, the woman sat on the edge of her bed, and still wearing her rumpled duty uniform. The adrenaline rush somehow remained, forcing her to be wide-eyed. She needed something to do, anything just to knock herself out, and Misato spotted her cooler, just parked by her bed. The woman opened the cooler, brought out a can of Yebisu, and pulled the tab.

Taking a swig, the taste and the coolness of the brew instantly soothed her, and as she was halfway emptying the can, her cellular phone rang.

Misato picked it up and pressed the 'Call' key. "Hello?" she asked.

"This is Fuyutsuki," the caller said. "You're still awake?"

The woman blinked as she set aside her beer. "Oh, good morning, sir…. Sorry. Yes, I'm up but about to sleep. You need something?"

"Since Miss Langley wanted to get back into Unit Two, I'm going to arrange for that Eva to be set up in place for her sync test, and before that, her physical examination, just to make sure. Is it okay if we have it scheduled later, say, around ten?"

Misato blinked again. "Ah… thank you, sir. Ten o'clock would be fine… But why so early? You're coming here?"

"Yes. Director Hamamoto called me at home, told me everything about what happened to you people, and that woke me up."

"I see," Misato said, and she glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside: 3:14 in the morning. "I'm sorry for getting ourselves into trouble. However, sir, I'm trying to get some shut-eye, it's been a long day for me."

"That would be right," Fuyutsuki said. "Okay, since you're real tired, we'll talk later. Go get some sleep."

"Thank you, sir. My pleasure," Misato replied, before Fuyutsuki hung up. Only then Misato took off her uniform jacket and shoulder holster, checked her pistol and unloaded it free of the magazine. She then set the weapon down on the bedside table, finished off the beer, rest her head upon a pillow and yawned. Briefly she glanced at her sleeping charges, before Misato closed her eyes and tried not to think of anything else.

* * *

On the other side of the world, at an airbase near Dresden, Keel Lorenz was going up the steps to a waiting hypersonic transport, the same plane used to ferry Kaworu to Japan. Two of his guards trailed him, while he was following another, leading to his seat in a special section, which resembled more like an office, replete with flatscreen displays and electronic wizardry to rival Air Force One.

Once he sat down, the first thing he did was to pick up a report presented on his desk, and then read:

**HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY PROJECT  
26****TH**** OPERATIONAL REPORT – 12/22/2015  
**CHAIRMAN LORENZ EYES ONLY  
TOP SECRET NOFORN NOCOPY - DESTROY AFTER READING

He skimmed through, but didn't have to read the whole report—forty or so pages—to know that all nine Evas were built and paid for; that Colonel Quaritch and praetorian guards under his command were armed and ready for the assault; the falsified press releases were properly prepared to deceive the world, and it was all money well-spent.

However, the same wasn't said for his operatives, including one tasked to play havoc within NERV, and another who was supposed to liquidate Asuka; both were expending his time and perhaps even his money. On the other hand, he was satisfied with the death of Seymour Nunn, a protective measure to ensure that the now-dead astronomer's secret, potentially explosive, will be buried along with his mortal body.

Keel put down the report and buckled up, just as he felt the plane was rolling on the runway for take-off. Instead of riding out the storm in his Dresden bunker, he preferred to take this flight to SEELE's secret Siberian base, personally inspect the Evas and Quaritch's army, before waiting for the rest of the council to convene in that base for their second-to-the-last meeting prior to their planned Third Impact. Right there, he would also listen to Kaworu's first-hand report, and reemphasize to that Angel about his supposed mission.

But whether Kaworu obeys or breaks his prerogatives, Keel knew that young man must die for the sake of the Scrolls; he was born for this, supposedly to champion on behalf of his brethren, yet must sacrifice himself in lieu of fighting.

That was part of the plan, and Keel hoped that nothing should go wrong on them, that their technological and military superiority should win them the fulfillment of Instrumentality.

By the time the hypersonic transport was ten kilometers above the Earth, Keel made a satellite phone call to SEELE's only surviving mole within NERV.

* * *

In the parking lot just outside the linear train station, Sanderson was smoking a cigarette in his car, waiting for almost an hour after a light breakfast of coffee and a bagel, anxious for dawn to break above the mountains, when his cellphone rang. He picked it up, and knew who was calling. No names, of course, as he was always reminded.

"Yes?" Sanderson said, flicking the cigarette butt away.

A scrambled voice answered back. "You have a job to do," it said. "Listen closely."

Sanderson was ready. "Okay."

"One, we want the Fifth Children monitored carefully, and report back for any discrepancies, and should he falter, turn him in. Two, investigate the unusual shipment that came yesterday by freight train. Three, we still want the Second Children eliminated. Four, you may go ahead and sabotage any vital systems they have in there, to cripple their ability to defend themselves. Finally, since that traitor Kaji stole Adam from us and presumably gave it to Ikari, we want to know where he is hiding it. Above all, report to us anything out of the ordinary."

"I got it all, sir." Sanderson asked about the now-dead triple agent. "As for Oda, he's dead by now, made himself expendable."

The caller cleared his throat. "I see, but it is up to you what must be done."

Sanderson nodded. "I understand. It's for Instrumentality, sir."

"We admire your faith in it, so we now entrust to you this task. Good luck."

**

* * *

About Two Hours Later…**

Finished with her austere breakfast of toast and tea, Rei was dressed up in her usual school uniform, but contemplating as she sat on her chair, as the morning sun rose over the Pacific Ocean. She was giving herself a few minutes of self-reflection before leaving.

"Why?" Rei asked herself. _What was my past?_

Was there an ancient memory of her existence, long before men walked the face of the Earth? She didn't know, or perhaps she had no idea or she even possessed a mental block. Since Kaworu told her she carried two souls, one for herself, the other for the being called Lilith, she wondered why she should be a vessel for a strange entity.

A memory flashed in her mind.

Rei, then behind the controls of Unit-00 and, on orders of the Commander, as a last-ditch solution to destroy Asuka's winged tormentor, went down to Terminal Dogma to pull out the Spear of Longinus from Lilith. As if silently accepting the act and acknowledging the purpose behind it, Lilith merely shuddered.

But before she left the chamber, to go up and save Asuka, Rei thought she was hearing something from Lilith.

_When you shall be home once again?_

Rei shook her head. _I do not know._

* * *

Tsutomo was waiting at the front steps of the Pyramid, with Oda's laptop and phone still in the bag. Earlier he woke with a phone call from his boss, telling him to get ready and come down. However, even after sleeping for only two hours, woke up and drank two cans of black coffee, Calorimate, and an invigorating cold shower, Tsutomo was still feeling drowsy.

He looked at the scenery around the Geofront, parts of it still lush and green despite last month's Angel attack, which nearly demolished the Pyramid and rearranged part of the landscape with an N2 warhead and successive beam and artillery blasts.

Tsutomo wondered where Natsumi was, and though he was tempted with the idea of giving her a call, he resisted the urge, didn't want to give the woman doctor a rude awakening as he knew that her last text message was around midnight, telling him she needed to sleep. But he was sure that Misato and the two Children were still asleep in their quarters. He checked his wristwatch: 6:25 AM.

He remembered their last conversation before he left.

Misato admitted that she was done crying and mourning, as Kaji's chapter has been finally closed, and though her revenge was foiled with that single vial of poison, it became obvious for her to undertake Kaji's quest and finish it, even at the risk of her life. But Tsutomo said that she can't do it on her own, that she could ask for help.

_Misato sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I can't simply do this personally. So what can you do?"_

"_Just tell me where to find," Tsutomo said. "Because even I'm wondering what's really going on behind the scenes."_

_The woman nodded. "Okay… But by the way, since we're now working as a team, just call me Misato."_

"_Sure," Tsutomo agreed._

_Misato smiled. "Thanks, partner. Give my regards to Natsumi."_

Just then he saw two black SUVs pull up to the curb and the doors opened, letting out Fuyutsuki and Hamamoto, and followed by the coterie of Section Two agents. With an obvious lack of sleep, both men looked as if they were in dire need of more coffee.

Tsutomo saluted, while his other arm tucked the parcel under. "Good morning, sir," he greeted, before his superiors returned the salute.

"Why you're still carrying it?" Hamamoto asked.

"Need to keep it under my guard," Tsutomo answered. "As you said, you want me to hand over this bag to Doctor Akagi so that she could start working on them, but I think it's a better idea that we should all first personally pay her a visit."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "I agree, Captain. Let's go, then."

They walked across the main hall, then to the elevators. Once inside one of them and Tsutomo pressed the button to go down, Hamamoto asked, "Any idea if Commander Ikari is awake?"

"He should be," Fuyutsuki said. "Fact is, he usually sleeps for three or four hours, and that's the average."

Hamamoto said, "A restless man. I wonder what's in his head right now."

"I have no idea, except he's… Frankly, he's still driven and ambitious. Has a dream he wanted to get."

The old director snorted. "What is it?"

"The problem is that he never told me what he's really up to."

Hamamoto shook his head. "Last time I had a boss like that," he said, "it's back when I was in Sasebo as a lieutenant, fresh out of the naval academy, working with a martinet of an admiral who's just as bad as Hideki Tojo, aiming for another star while his personal Kempeitai terrorizes the rest of my staff. Comes to the office, expecting everyone to be up and working, say, eighty hours for a week, or they'll get their ass reamed. I thought I was about to get a bad episode of hypertension working with that sonofabitch."

"Ah, I see," Fuyutsuki said.

"Fortunately, I was lucky to get transfer orders to move up to Yokosuka, and as soon as I moved into the new base, first thing I did was to have a blood pressure checkup. Now I also wonder how the hell you manage to get along with the Commander."

"Simple," Fuyutsuki said. "Without me, he can't work; he can't have a confessor; and, I admit, he can't manage NERV easily, especially when you have about a dozen or so branches around the planet and you have to make most of the operational decisions on a daily basis. Finally, I'm the only one who could keep him from being a loose cannon, because he knows me, and I know him very well."

* * *

Halfway to Gate 18, Rei was walking on the dusty road when she heard a Humvee honking its horn behind her. Startled, she turned around and, from the open window, the driver gestured to her as the vehicle pulled over. Apparently the driver recognized her, with the tell-tale powder-blue hair.

"Hey, miss, I know you… Thought you might want a ride, 'cause we're heading your way," the driver said, wearing fatigues, clean-shaven and yet looked tired. By their uniforms and body armor Rei recognized him and two of his companions as part of NERV's security forces; she could also hear radio chatter coming from the network. They were probably at the end of their duty shift, and due to return to base. Rei nodded; the men were harmless, obviously offering a spare seat.

"Thank you. That would be acceptable," she said, and the passenger door swung open to let her climb in, before the Humvee rolled away.

As the girl tucked the hem of her skirt, adjusting to the hard seat, the troops introduced themselves to Rei; Staff Sergeant Hasegawa the driver, Corporals Kumamoto and Inoue were his companions. With their submachine guns emptied, safetied and stowed in bags at the back of the Humvee, they all admitted they were on-station at one of the checkpoints since last night, and now in need for breakfast and a shower before hitting the sack.

"What business you're going to do down there today, miss?" Hasegawa asked, referring to NERV HQ.

"I am not sure," Rei said.

"That's too bad. You're such a busy girl before," the driver remarked.

Rei blinked. "How did you know?"

"Most guys, including us, know you're more often down at HQ than you spend time at school, judging from your uniform. Well, we still haven't seen you wear something other than that uniform of yours. I wonder if you have any sense of fashion."

"Fashion is the least of my concerns," Rei said.

"I see," Hasegawa said. "Speaking of fashion, my sister's still nuts about her clothes, and the problem with her, she buys a bunch of them from some label outlet, taking more than half of her salary, then after a month, sells them to a used clothes store. Crazy fads… Anyway, I thought you're always with the Commander."

"Why?" Rei asked, but corrected herself. "Yes, I was always with him before."

"That's right, he's almost stuck with you at almost everywhere, and I saw you many times with him. But now… What's up with him? Do you have any idea?"

Rei shook her head. "I still do not know him well."

Hasegawa frowned. "Oh. That's strange. What about the Third Children, the Ikari boy, whom you sometimes come with? He's the Commander's son, right?"

"Yes, he is," Rei confirmed. "He is a friend."

Hasegawa shot a glance at his comrades, as if he wanted them to hear some juicy tidbit from the First Children's mouth, but he restrained himself, shaking his head; it would be too rude to ask, to clarify an ongoing rumor in the NERV grapevine, whether Rei was Shinji's girlfriend on the basis of their walks together.

"Forgot something to tell you, Miss…?" Hasegawa trailed off, trying to recall Rei's full name, as he briefly glanced at a row of giant dump trucks and other heavy earthmoving equipment parked by the road, apparently the cleanup work on the city ruins halted as a result of the yellow alert.

"Ayanami," Rei said, supplying the proper answer. "What is it?"

"Okay, Miss Ayanami," Hasegawa said, nodding. "You know what happened yesterday to Major Katsuragi and your friends, right? The ambush that knocked off some of our fellows from my unit with an IED and a missile; two Humvees like this and all twelve of them, more than half wounded, and, God bless 'em, a few others we had to send home in a box."

"Yes."

"Well, this early morning we heard on the net about the Major's home invaded by an assassin, trying to shoot the Second Children… again," he said. "Looks as if the killer wanted to make it more personal."

Rei's eyes went wide. "What happened?"

Hasegawa briefly narrated the reportage they gleaned from the radio network throughout the wee hours, of the attempt on Asuka's life, and possibly the rest of her companions.

"…and the problem is," Hasegawa continued, "Who wants to have that girl killed?"

"I do not know," Rei said, but she looked worried this time.

Hasegawa noted her facial expression. "What's wrong?"

"I am now deeply concerned about their safety. Where are they?"

"Not sure, but I guess they've been ordered to move over to HQ and bunk there. Security's tighter there, and though we're still on Yellow Alert, if another attack happens we might get a Red Alert, and with that nothing's gonna get in or out."

* * *

In the Cafeteria, all three of them were eating their breakfast, after waking up an hour ago, showered and dressed.

Now, as the widescreen TV at one end of the dining room was tuned to CNN, with the newscaster speaking of today's events, Misato put down her cup of coffee and said to Asuka, "The Sub-Commander has arranged to prepare Unit Two at ten. You're still ready for it?"

Asuka looked up from her half-finished plate of ham, eggs and bacon with a side of toast, and said, rather pleased, "Oh, good! I think I'm ready."

"You better get a checkup again," Misato suggested. "We want to make sure you're okay to go."

"Sure, no big deal," Asuka said, nodding before paying attention to her plate, and took a morsel of bacon and a bite of toast.

"But…" Misato trailed off. "I'd better bring you first to the personnel office to have you reinstated."

Asuka remembered that her ID card was already invalidated with punched holes. "Oh, I see… I forgot about that."

Shinji, on the other hand as he ate a bowl of beef gyudon, had nothing to say except his mind was wandering elsewhere. He asked himself, _what to do today?_

He thought of Rei, and guessing what she was doing today; of Kaworu, what was he doing right now? Shinji also remembered his friends back at Tokyo-2, and what was up with them. Now how long this tense state of affairs could last? A few days, some weeks, months perhaps? When the next Angel would show up? What would happen next?

The young man sighed as if there was something still missing in him, and as if several tons of doubts landed upon him. Sure, he and Asuka settled their differences, and he had nothing to fear about Rei. Today, he guessed, he might have to go along or…

"Shinji, are you all right?" Misato asked, breaking his reverie, causing him to blink.

"Cat got your tongue again?" Asuka chimed in, before laughing lightly.

"Yes? Uh… I'm not feeling sure today," he said, blinking.

"What?"

Misato sighed. "Look, if you're thinking about what happened a few hours ago… Better forget it for now, and let Section Two deal with it until they come up with something new. If you're also worrying about our friends, we could call them later if we want to; they can handle themselves."

"Okay," Shinji said.

Misato glanced at both Children and said, "Listen to me, you two. I have something else to say."

The two Eva pilots paused to listen and looked back at their guardian, setting aside their food.

"Now that you have settled differences and broke down the wall," Misato said, "confess your love to each other, and finally understood each other's situations and secrets… I'm hoping that since you're now together, you should _succeed further_ where Kaji and I have failed."

The woman closed her eyes for a while, and added, "Before me, you two finally said the words that Kaji was supposed to say to me but he never did, and so, I admit, I'm a bit envious of you both. Fate does have a strange way of bringing you together, and, well, you're destined for each other."

Misato sighed, and continued, "So, from now on… Please, make the best of your relationship and of yourselves, work together as a team, and how you do… No, I mean, what _we do_ today would soon affect the outcome of this conflict we're still in, and we're the best of what humanity has to deliver against the Angels."

Shinji and Asuka looked at each other, smiled and nodded, but Misato offered her pinky, and said, "Promise me you remember everything I said, right?"

"Okay," Shinji said.

"No problem," Asuka replied, nodding.

Both Children used their pinky fingers and joined them to Misato's, and then the woman felt relieved, breathing easy. "Now, come on, you lovebirds, let's finish this before we go," she said before going back to her bowl of yakisoba noodles.

* * *

At almost the same time Kaworu was stirring to life, blinking as he rose from bed, parting away his blanket. For a minute or two he sat on his bed, thinking of the dream he had.

_The purification ceremony, _he thought. _Seems it's a sign that they're getting impatient._

Kaworu sighed and wondered if he made the right decision. _I know. I've violated my oath, but… I just can't help it. I can't leave and there's no turning back. No, I just made my choice because I love her._

The first thing he needed to do was to take a morning bath down at the communal shower room, so he stood up, took a towel, toiletries and picked up some clothes to wear. As he opened the door, he was surprised to see Rei in the hallway.

"Oh," Kaworu mumbled. "I didn't know you're here. Good morning, Rei," he said, before kissing the girl on the cheek and smiled.

"Good morning, Nagisa," Rei said.

"What brings you here?" Kaworu asked, thinking of many reasons she would be coming here. But he noted her rather serious facial expression. "Something wrong?"

Rei bowed her head and said, "I want to ask something."

Kaworu looked around, before he let Rei come into his room. Once he closed the door, he said, "Tell me what's wrong."

Rei told him of Hasegawa's story about this early morning's incident. Kaworu's eyes narrowed, as if he felt something wasn't right at all. _That wasn't part of the plan,_ he thought.

"Why someone wants her to die?" Rei asked. "I do not understand."

"I don't know either," Kaworu answered.

"But… Is it a coincidence that you came here, and then…" Rei said.

Kaworu shook his head, as if he knew what she was about to say. "No, I'm not part of it, Ayanami," he denied. "Please, are you telling me that I'm involved?"

Seeing Kaworu's disappointment, Rei quickly turned away from him, as if ashamed. "I… I did not mean to hurt you," she whispered, "but I wanted to know."

Kaworu sighed. "I'm now here because of you, not because what I was ordered to do."

Rei shook her head. "No, Nagisa, I need the truth. Why is that you came here and then bad things are happening to Pilot Soryu, Ikari and Katsuragi?"

Kaworu touched Rei's shoulder and slowly made the girl turn around to face her. He looked morose, looked deeply into her eyes and said, "Listen to me… What I'm going to say will again be a secret between us. This you must know."

Rei nodded.

"I was asked simply to replace Asuka. I was supposed to do my job," Kaworu said, "yet it seems that they—the Committee—never told me what they're actually up to. So I don't really know what or who they have put in place here other than me, to harm to our friends, and that now makes me unhappy."

Kaworu bowed down his head a bit. "Now whoever the Committee has sent, I may have to stop them if I can. As for me, I'm _reconsidering_ about my plans. Because of you, I… No, I'm _not_ going to contact Adam for your sake. Because you want to live, because there's still some hope with the Lilim, and because after all the millennia of separation, I don't want to lose you this time."

With care Kaworu took Rei's hands, and looked up to her eyes. "Ayanami," he said. "I'm sorry, but I want to set things right because I love you very much."

* * *

About twenty minutes later, they were in the Personnel office at level B-1, where Misato explained it all to the clerk, who then sought verification by checking his email to see if there was any confirming memo regarding Asuka's reinstatement.

"Let's see… Oh, yes, it's here, ma'am," he said, before reading the emailed memo from Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, sent in last night. After a minute, the clerk nodded and glanced at the girl.

"Miss Langley," the clerk said.

Asuka cocked an eye. "What?"

The clerk stood up. "Please follow me to have your ID picture taken," he said and led her to an adjacent room for a two-by-two shot.

After Asuka had her picture taken digitally, she filled up NERV Personnel Form 320-D, along with Misato's authorizing signature (as her legal guardian, due to Asuka's minor status), and gave it to the clerk, who then had the finished form and other information run through a scanner, and the computer processed them all. No more than two minutes the ID printer spat out Asuka's brand-new ID card.

"Here's your new card," the clerk said, handing it to the redhead. "Welcome back."

"Thank you so much," Asuka said, smiling. Shinji bothered himself to glance at the new card, plastic and colored red, and he nodded in approval.

NERV / UNITED NATIONS EMERGENCY FORCES - JAPAN  
**2C LANGLEY SORYU ASUKA** 0001-408-25  
**PROJECT E / OPS** / LEVEL 7 SEC ACCESS  
Date Issued: Dec 23 2015 _**MINOR**__ (U-19) _

"My pleasure, young lady, and oh, Colonel," the clerk spoke, noting Misato's new rank. "Nice shooting yesterday."

Misato chuckled, and asked, "How did you know?"

"Ma'am, big news can go around here fast. From the grapevine, everyone knows you beat them off," the clerk said, smiling, as he referred to yesterday's ambush.

"Ah, that's nothing. Thanks, Corporal," Misato answered.

"Have a nice day," the clerk said, waving his hand, before he watched all three of them leave.

* * *

"Have I explained to you about the Human Instrumentality Committee?" Kaworu asked. They were sitting on the futon this time.

Rei shook her head. "I have no idea, but sometimes the Commander would speak of them."

"Perhaps I'll fill you out the details."

Kaworu explained to Rei that officially the Committee was composed of five men representing the member-nations of the United Nations Security Council. But in reality those men were part of a 12-member core group of powerful individuals known under the name of SEELE, whose intent was to fulfill the aims of the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls. An ancient sect dating back to the Dark Ages, each member was wealthy, immensely powerful, yet most of them are older than sixty-five years old. A nondenominational cabal, they have full control of most of the world's governments, militaries, societies, economies, religions, and of course, the United Nations was already in SEELE's pocket.

Except they have problems controlling their runaway creation called NERV, which explained why Kaworu was sent in an attempt to penalize the organization for Commander Ikari's unilateral actions inimical to SEELE's interests, and to realize part of the Scroll's prophecies.

"That's what they want, I'm afraid," Kaworu said.

"Is there any way you could, or at least we could try to stop this?" Rei questioned.

Kaworu shook. "No… It's too late; everything's now set in motion."

Rei sighed.

"However… Even if we can't stop this from happening, it's still possible to _change_ the trajectory."

"How?"

"They may want it to happen, but I think it's really up to us to decide and to change all this."

Kaworu ran his hand over that gray mess of his hair, and said, "You and I are partly of Angelic material, and of the Lilim. We also have this power of manipulating the AT-Field, yet we cannot utilize this out of the fear of compromising ourselves. Now if in case should I am caught or exposed... I have no other choice except to do what must be done, while at the same time I know they're expecting to see what they wanted to see."

"What do you mean?" Rei asked.

"Depending how things play out, it's a matter of deception."

* * *

In the Stockade, Ritsuko was sleeping when she heard the guard calling her while knocking on the door.

"Doctor," the guard said through the steel slits.

Ritsuko groaned as she tried to open her eyes. Slowly she rose up from her cot and said, "What?"

"The Sub-Commander would like to see you," the guard answered as he turned on the lights, opened the door and three figures came inside the cell. Fuyutsuki, Director Hamamoto, and some Section Two agent she could hardly remember, but Ritsuko noted the ID hanging from the agent's suit, and the name on it: Captain Tsutomo Kanzaki. The agent was holding Oda's bagged electronic belongings, hanging from his hand.

"Good morning, Doctor," Fuyutsuki greeted.

"What's going on?" Ritsuko asked, blinking.

Fuyutsuki sighed. "I'm sorry to say but there's a very urgent problem we have to deal with, and we'd like you to check this over," he said, referring to the suspect laptop. "I have issued an order to drop all the charges against you, and to be released _immediately_. It's official; no strings attached whatsoever."

Agreeing, Hamamoto and Tsutomo nodded in unison.

Ritsuko looked astonished, mouth agape. "I… I can't say…" she stammered in response, unsure what to say. "I have nothing… But…"

"Doctor, this is your second chance," Fuyutsuki said, cutting her off. "Whatever mistakes you made down there is nothing compared to what troubles we're trying to cope at this moment. Besides, this is probably your only way to gain redemption."

"Why me?" Ritsuko asked, feeling skeptical. "Anyone who's into computers could open that laptop."

"There's nobody else in this organization than you, who's better-equipped and knowledgeable enough to take on any challenge of your caliber. Now, if you know the inner workings of the MAGI like the back of your hand, then it's easy for you to try at least uncover any evidence in this laptop.

"I'm doing this because you, in my mind, deserve a little more. Remember also that you're not your mother's daughter, and you're smart enough to know that you can change for the good. Now, if you have any bad feelings in your heart, you'll have to let go of them."

The woman pondered on his words for a moment, blinking in a bid to fight off her tears, managing a lump in her throat. Here, Fuyutsuki was now presenting an opportunity of renewal, after Gendo discarded her completely, having expended her talents, and by extension, her body.

Finally, Ritsuko nodded, her lips slowly forming into a smile while wiping her cheeks. "When I'll start?" she asked.

"As soon as we bring you to your lab," Fuyutsuki answered, and he offered his hand to her for a handshake.

The woman took his with an open palm, and shook. "Thank you."

"Welcome back," the Sub-Commander said, smiling. "By the way, I apologize for not being able to check on you."

"It's okay," Ritsuko answered. "I'm coping well. What if Ikari finds out about this?"

"I'll handle him personally, should he start asking some questions."

Consciously, Ritsuko felt for her hair, and made a mental note to get her tube of Gatsby hair color at the office; she wanted platinum blonde applied on her hair, as if in need of reclaiming her identity.

"Now," Fuyutsuki said as they walked out of the Stockade, "I know I'll catch hell with this, setting you free, but it's important that we must unlock this laptop."

"What's inside it?" Ritsuko questioned. "What's going on?"

Fuyutsuki explained everything about the last 24 hours, before he said, "Oda killed himself, after he failed to assassinate Miss Langley. Section Two agents found this thing later in the killer's van, but they don't want to open it because the data could be erased if they entered the wrong password. So, anything else you need?"

Ritsuko thought for a few seconds, and then spoke. "Yes… Just keep Ikari off my back, and now that I'm back, I'll order a ream of cigarettes and lots of hot coffee. This is going to be a very long day."

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Cigarettes?"

"Seven Stars. My brand. Bad for you, good for me," Ritsuko said, "and I don't give a damn about the tar and nicotine, or the warning labels on the pack; I know the dangers; I still need it to get my brain working, even if a stick worth of this addiction costs me a day less of my life. _Bellum longum, vita brevis… _War is long, life is short, quoting a Latin scholar acquaintance of mine, and life is a war."

The old man nodded. "Ah, okay."

"However, I swear, once this war with the Angels is over and we live to tell it, I'll kick the habit altogether cold-turkey when that day comes."

* * *

In his gargantuan office, his hands in the usual position, Gendo was seething within, wondering why Fuyutsuki or even Rei haven't shown up today, and guessing where they are.

_What the hell is going on?_ Gendo asked himself.

Taking immediate action, the bearded Commander loaded the video search algorithm onto his terminal and began searching for their whereabouts. Again the MAGI came up with results and once more he wasn't pleased with the surveillance videos: cameras showed Fuyutsuki walking along with Ritsuko Akagi, on their way to her lab, with Director Hamamoto and an agent in tow; while Rei was with Kaworu in a hallway, walking together to the shower room.

He clenched his fist, and promptly he grabbed a nearby telephone, dialed for the Stockade's number. "This is Commander Ikari speaking," Gendo said.

"Good morning, Commander, what I can do for you?" the Stockade commander answered, with a faint tinge of nervousness in his voice.

"Why is Doctor Akagi out there?" Gendo demanded. "Who ordered her released? Was it Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki?"

"Ah… Yes, sir… Sorry, he did," the soldier answered, almost stammering. "In fact, he signed the release papers, along with Director Hamamoto, to drop all criminal charges against her."

Surprised, Gendo looked furious this time, but at the same time tried to keep his temper in control. "Go on," he said.

"Sir, they wanted her to help in the investigation on the mole infiltration and then the assassination attempt on the Second Children this early morning. They have this piece of evidence, which may help them find the moles and whoever is behind—"

"All right, that will be enough, Captain," Gendo snapped. "I shall talk to him about this matter as soon as he comes to me. Go back to your duties."

The Stockade commander sounded relieved. "Thank you, sir," he said before cutting off the line.

Gendo put down the receiver, and returned to his thinking position. Inwardly, he felt he was losing control of variables he was supposed to possess like chess pieces on the board. He also hated the image of Keel Lorenz figuratively laughing at him while having a step ahead or two in the Instrumentality race.

As far as Rei was concerned, Gendo decided that for now he will let her do what she wanted, just to find out how far Kaworu Nagisa would act within his manor; he'd like to see him make one mistake, one slip, to expose the Fifth Children's true colors. Only then he would make the first move.

* * *

At the Infirmary, they met Natsumi Odani in her office, who greeted them. Misato told her what was needed, and then behind the curtains the doctor began to perform her full checkup on Asuka, who stripped down and sat on the examination table.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Misato, sitting on a bench outside that office, waited. While she read last month's dog-eared copy of _Good Housekeeping Japan_, picked up from the bin full of used magazines, Shinji zoned himself out with Asuka's iPod, listening to Linkin Park's new album.

The checkup took about thirty minutes until Natsumi peeked out of the door and said, "Misato, you may come in and take a seat. We need to talk."

Setting aside their distractions, Misato and Shinji stood up and walked inside the office, but Natsumi said, "Shinji, I'm sorry but you'll have to wait along with Asuka."

Shinji nodded as Asuka, now dressed once more, walked out before Natsumi closed the door. Glum, the girl took a recent copy of a teen fashion magazine from the bin.

"What's going on?" the boy asked once they sat.

Asuka shrugged. "I have no idea what they're going to talk about," she said while flipping the pages.

* * *

Once both women were alone, Natsumi said, "I heard about you guys being in trouble again. What happened?"

Misato explained this early morning's events to Natsumi.

"Why would someone kill her?" the young doctor asked afterwards, blinking.

"That's the same question we were asking ourselves since yesterday," Misato said. "There are suspects behind all this, but there's no definite proof. Not until they finish investigating this matter. But there are three, I believe: the United Nations and perhaps some hostile member-state; the local government, who thinks we're a pain in their ass; and there's a third one. If you're thinking about the International Resistance, forget it; they're only acting as a proxy, as killers for hire."

"I see," Natsumi said. "What's the third?"

"Can't tell but it's a mystery group. They're pulling strings just about anywhere, and I think they're longer here, long before we're born."

Inwardly, Natsumi had a pang of guilt of withholding one secret, after the discovery of Kaworu's real identity. She looked around the room, hoping there was nobody to eavesdrop on them.

"Is the door closed and locked?" Natsumi asked.

"Well, yeah," Misato confirmed, nodding. To be sure, however, Misato walked towards the door, checked the knob and the lock, lowered and shut the blinds, before going back to her seat.

Natsumi sighed in relief. "Okay, there's one thing I left out, something I should've told you last night, but afraid of doing so. Don't tell anyone."

Misato cocked an eye. "What is it?"

The woman doctor pursed her lips. "Trust me on this," she said, her voice lowered, "but… I operated on Commander Ikari's left hand some nights ago, and you wonder why he's wearing gloves all the time."

"He… He had this Adam creature stitched onto his palm," Natsumi admitted.

Misato was completely shocked. "He WHAT?" she exclaimed.

"I'm not kidding. I surgically attached that Adam thing, and it managed to merge into his flesh in a few minutes. Personally, it was too fucking scary to watch, and I thought I was in a horror movie. For some reason he didn't told me the details, saying it's all hush-hush, so I was wondering what the hell he wanted to do with that... _squirmy thing_."

Already Misato's brain was whirling, trying to put that piece of the puzzle into where it should be. Months ago she caught Kaji sneaking at Terminal Dogma, and blew up his cover, yet he showed to her that the nailed creature before them was Adam. But if Natsumi's tale was true, then what the hell was that white, bloated circus freak she was then looking at?

As if Natsumi was reading her mind, the doctor took a pencil and a pad, and then went to sketch out Adam's appearance. Once finished, she passed the drawing to Misato.

In complete disbelief, Misato stared at the crude drawing on the desk. Three inches in diameter, it was like an Angel embryo but this was completely different, small enough to be contained in the palm. Big eyeballs. A curved spine and a tail. Small limbs. Almost humanoid, like a shrunken Eva. Her mind was making comparisons between this and the strange figure of light she saw just before Second Impact's explosion; it was hard to reconcile both images as being the one and the same.

"That's how it looked like," Natsumi said. "When it was first handed over to me at the operating room, it was encased in a block of Bakelite. Nothing to indicate where it came from or who once owned it, except there was a great fuss of security surrounding the damned thing as if it was a sample of the Ebola Virus."

_Was this what Kaji died for?_ Misato asked herself. _Was this Adam the reason why all of this existed, the reason for the Second Impact? Was this what we're paying the price for?_

"Are you sure you never told anyone else about this?" she asked, looking at Natsumi.

Natsumi shook her head. "Hell, no, and I even signed an NDA. Nobody else until now. I told you this because frankly, I'm damn scared about what the Commander's going to do next with that Adam, so you're the first to know."

Misato nodded. "Thanks," she said. "Since you and I, even Makoto and the Sub-Commander, and maybe Akagi are in too deep, there's one thing for sure."

"What?" Natsumi asked, perplexed.

"Welcome to the Conspiracy Theory Club."

* * *

In the lab once occupied by Ritsuko, Maya Ibuki was sweeping the floor, trying to maintain the orderliness of the room. Ever since Ritsuko's arrest, while Natsumi took over the medical side of the department, Maya, as second-in-command, was put in charge of the scientific position Ritsuko had vacated. In the days that followed, Maya took the burden of her role, anywhere from signing requisition forms, to running maintenance utilities on the MAGI, to overseeing tests that didn't require her to be squeamish or able to withstand gore.

Two years ago, despite her top standing in college with a summa cum laude in computer science, she undertook a rather difficult job hunt since graduation, trying to find a suitable position in some of the prestigious scientific organizations in the country. Just as she was hopelessly locked out by the job market, she got an unexpected phone call from NERV, who hired her from out of the blue. That was the best achievement she ever had, and what astonished her further was being given the plum job as an aide to the brilliant and famous daughter of Japan's then-premier computer scientist.

That was an ecstatic feeling then, but now Maya felt the pain of loss, of watching her boss being escorted out of this lab, with handcuffs locked around the wrists. Maya wondered when her boss would be back soon.

She didn't have to wonder or wait any longer, as the door opened without warning. Maya turned around and saw Ritsuko, still wearing light green coveralls and hair turned to chestnut brown. She was also with Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and Director Hamamoto, and an agent in tow, carrying a plastic bag.

"Doctor Akagi?" Maya mumbled, dropping her broom and dustpan at the same time.

Ritsuko smiled. "I'm back," she said.

In a total breach of protocol, Maya rushed and hugged her boss, as though a goddess descended from Olympus to perform miracles. She was now crying in joy, laughing, now reassured that once again things would be all right.

"Uh, Maya…" Ritsuko mumbled, as she was almost crushed by Maya's embrace. "Can you give me a little slack? Can't breathe."

Maya blinked, sniffing, and realizing what she did, disengaged herself from Ritsuko's form. "Sorry," she said, bowing repeatedly before wiping her cheeks. "I got carried away."

"Okay, but don't make it a big deal," Ritsuko said, before she turned to the men present, all three of them looked amused, and asked, "Well?"

"I'll make sure nothing's going to disturb while you work," Fuyutsuki said, as Tsutomo laid the bag down on the work table in the middle of the lab.

Hamamoto took a breath, and said, "However, Doctor, if you find anything unusual, try to contact us and see what we could do."

Ritsuko nodded, as Maya quickly went to her boss' locker and began pulling out spare clothes. "Okay, it's a deal. No problem with the time pressure either, if you're concerned about it."

"Good," Hamamoto agreed, and gestured to Fuyutsuki that it was time to leave. "Now I bid you good hunting, Doctor. By the way, forgive us for the inconvenience of… arresting you."

"I accept your apology, Director," Ritsuko said, before she and Maya bowed deeply, very thankful, and the three men bowed back. "Thank you two for bringing me back here. I'll appreciate for what have you done for me today," she added.

"It's our pleasure, and we'll see you later," Fuyutsuki said, smiling, before the trio left the lab and closed the door.

Once they were gone, Ritsuko picked up her clothes, and then faced Maya.

"Maya, go get my laptop and gear while I dress up. We'll hack this thing," she requested, pointing at the wrapped notebook computer and cellular phone on the table. "And yeah, I want my groove back," she added, before grinning to her aide.

_Now if you could see me, Gendo, you'll be surprised, _Ritsuko told herself._ You just wait._

* * *

Down at the cages, with the cage crew acting on Fuyutsuki's request, Unit-02 was about to be moved, from its holding pen to the Test Facility. By far the procedure isn't as simple as it sounds.

After draining the entire tank free of coolant surrounding the Eva, the technicians first lowered the restraint braces with cables hooked to a gantry, and then they connected the braces to the pylons on the Eva's shoulders, locking them in place with heavy steel bolts to the main binder frame, which would permit safe transportation of the Eva just about anywhere within the Geofront.

Once the entire binder frame held the Eva in place, the technicians started to move the behemoth with the gantry, lifting its 300-plus metric ton mass onto the platform of a maglev carrier, just as large as its intended cargo. Technicians scrambled to bolt and lock the Eva's binder frame to the carrier.

Finished, the Eva crew chief signaled to the driver to start moving, and the carrier began its short journey from the cage to the test site, connected by a network of outsized tunnels.

* * *

From his office, Kozo Fuyutsuki transmitted several memos to department heads by fax and email: the official confirmation of Misato's promotion to lieutenant-colonel, a scheduled sync test for Asuka and Unit-02, and Ritsuko's reinstatement.

The last memo was bound to get Gendo's ire, yet no matter how much Gendo would get angry at Fuyutsuki for taking action on his own initiative, the Commander can't simply chuck him out of NERV, and both of them knew that.

* * *

After Natsumi's admission of Adam's existence, Misato began to narrate the events that unfolded fifteen years ago, which led to the largest cataclysm in human history: her father's expedition to Mount Markham, the disastrous contact experiment, and the devastating rampage of an enigmatic white-lighted figure that eventually set off the explosion, eating up most of Antarctica and generating a mammoth tsunami that devoured most of the world's coasts.

"…and from there, well," Misato said, "I don't remember how I was rescued, but I remember being examined, operated on, and then put in a room of some sort. For two years, I think, they kept me there without telling me, as I wasn't able to speak a word because I was then in a state of shock."

Natsumi frowned at the rather harsh treatment given to Misato. "Why they do that?"

Misato ran a hand on her hair, and sighed. "They think I'm an irradiated, contaminated test subject. But suddenly they just put me through therapy and counseling, and with some compensation I was returned to my mom. But it took me some time to get used to the normal world until I was able to attend school again."

"I see," Natsumi said. "It's surprising you were able to get over it…"

Misato shook her head. "No, not exactly. Sometimes things aren't easy to forget, and even after ten years I still had nightmares about it. But… I think Kaji died for this Adam, and damn wish he told me, unless I finally have the answers."

"Now what are we going to do with this?"

The woman officer looked away. "I just have to plan a way. We can't simply jump on the Commander."

* * *

Outside, as she read another magazine, Asuka's mind was thinking of something else.

Once she wears the plug suit again, she would be gambling, the odds very much split in half. Should she fail, then there was no choice except to hand Unit-02 to Kaworu altogether and go home; but if she makes it through, well, she would have a thousand reasons to be thankful for, and countless tantalizing possibilities.

_How appropriate_, she amusedly thought, _Second Children, second chance… and one can only live twice._

She thought of her purpose of piloting Eva. Before, she wanted it in order to prove herself superiority, but inwardly to escape the past, to hide the pain and the suffering she sought to erase. She would pilot as if it was an expression of her personal will, yet at a moral cost.

However, she had a good reason to be here today, not because she wanted to prove herself, but because she wanted to come to terms with her mother.

Asuka remembered a dream she sometimes had, and she turned to Shinji and said, "Thought you might want something from me to know."

"What?" Shinji wondered.

"I had this dream for years," she began. "Well, imagine being in a field of sunflowers and it's all sunny and clear, the kind you'd like to hold a picnic."

"Uh huh."

Asuka ran her hand over the head, and sighed. "I dreamed of being right there, with those sunflowers, and I could hear Mom calling my name, and yet I could barely see her. So I ran towards the direction of her voice, thinking she's there. But I made a mistake; I lost myself right in the middle of the field, and I don't know where to go. There's too many of the flowers, I couldn't find my way out, and even if I shout her name, I could hear nothing, her voice gone.

"There's a meaning to this, and you and I know about my past, which is why I'm lost in that dream, and before I could try to finish it, I wake up."

The girl sighed.

"How you'll end it?" Shinji asked.

"I'm not sure," Asuka answered.

* * *

"Are you still okay?" Kaworu asked Rei, who was across the table, silently eating her second, but heavier, breakfast of garlic noodles, with buttered bread on the side and orange juice. Kaworu had _sozai_ and two rolls, with a cup of green tea. The Cafeteria's TV was tuned this time to a football match between Barcelona FC and Manchester United, and the patrons were glued to the screen, cheering the players as they kicked the ball across the field, trying to gain a goal while the fans' vuvuzuela horns tooted loudly.

Rei nodded. She finally accepted much of Kaworu's explanation about his new motives.

"This time I'm not going to regret my decision," he said, referring to their earlier conversation. "But even if I'm not sure how long I'll keep that, I'll stand by the choices I make as long as I breathe."

Kaworu thought of what else he wished to talk about, and he remembered watching _Romeo and Juliet._ "Have you read something other than genetics?" he asked.

"Pardon me?" Rei asked.

"I mean, poems or other stories, and in school, sometimes were you been asked to study literature?"

Rei sighed. "I do not have any understanding of _haiku_, nor could I write a poem or an essay. I am not very good."

But Kaworu already knew this, having recalled a fragment of Rei's memory, in which she glanced at her report card: although her marks in science, history, language and math were excellent, Rei had dismal grades in literature, music and art, and basic calligraphy wasn't easy for her. The Fifth Children shook his head.

"Maybe I could get you started," Kaworu said, smiling. "I know a few good ones just to get your mind opened, and I'll share everything I know."

"I would like to try," Rei agreed, genuinely interested.

Kaworu breathed easy, but just as he was about to resume eating, an announcement broke over from the PA system, initially beginning with a three-tone dong and interrupting everyone:

"At Test Facility One, there will be an upcoming synchronization test for Unit Two at ten-hundred hours," the female voice said. "Personnel assigned to sync test operations are to report to their designated stations an hour before the actual test proper…"

Kaworu and Rei looked at each other.

"Well?" he asked.

"I hope Pilot Soryu would try to learn what I said," Rei answered.

"I know what you mean," Kaworu said. "Her Eva won't move unless she opens her heart."

"That is true."

"So… Why don't we try to watch her?" he suggested. "See if she could make sense out of your advice."

Rei nodded. "I will."

* * *

About twenty meters away, from his table Sanderson watched the two Children stand up and leave, walking out of the Cafeteria. He'd been watching them for the last thirty minutes, wondering why he was always with the First Children. Perhaps there was something between them? A secret? If so, why?

Earlier he'd already reviewed every piece of video surveillance footage matching Kaworu's face, using the same search algorithm utilized by Commander Ikari.

Sanderson drank his coffee, and he knew that the two Children were together most of the time, and it seemed that the Chairman's hunch was right: Kaworu wasn't doing his job. On that conclusion, Sanderson saved the search results to disk, as he would use it as proof of Kaworu's betrayal. Yet he would send this evidence to the Chairman later, as there was more sabotage work to do, to get more proof, and acquire knowledge of the Commander's own agenda.

True, the Chairman tasked him to locate Adam, but even after some hard snooping he figured that the Commander was wily enough to hide the three-inch creature. He asked, _Where in the hell is Adam?_

He also discovered that yesterday's mysterious train-brought shipment turned out to be a fresh arsenal of military weaponry: assault rifles, squad machine guns, submachine guns, pistols, grenades, anti-tank missile launchers, explosives, bulletproof vests, and tons of ammunition, all of it US military surplus. Sanderson jumped to the conclusion that NERV had probably anticipated the possibility of a full-scale armed attack, and sought to upgrade their defenses, arm the troops with enough ordnance to fight off an army.

Sanderson shook his head; this new arsenal was being heavily guarded by a platoon of security troops, and even with a Section Two ID card there was no way he could destroy the cache. Colonel Quaritch would be outraged if he ever finds out that the opposition will be formidably armed to the teeth.

On the other hand, the unexpected sync test forced Sanderson to rework his plan. He had to find a way to put Asuka out of the game permanently, and the Chairman knew that leaving her alive would make it difficult to execute the plan.

He had his concealed weapons ready: a small suppressed pistol, a fighting knife, and a Styrette, a battlefield syringe that used a spring-loaded injector and a sturdy neddle capable of puncturing through even several layers of clothing or body armor; and the special syringe was filled with a poison that would induce cardiac arrest within ten minutes.

Sanderson was ready, patiently waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

**

* * *

Author's Note: **This one took a bit long, as I made at least two major revisions while juggling some real-life concerns. Furthermore, there are some errata in the previous chapters that needed correction. Yeah, and I'm fighting off some writer's block threatening to derail this ongoing project. However, there's a thing I realized while writing: I feel like playing a game of chess, moving the pieces, trying to anticipate the opponent's next move.

Perhaps in the next few chapters, there will be some familiar sights, but with a different twist; there will be also some action coming, and of course, we'll never expect what's going to happen. As the description for _LW_ implies, "Because some prophecies are not carved in stone".

Thank you for your continuing patronage, guys, I'll try to come up with some more chapters (grins).


	24. Comeback Princess

"_On the floor of the midbrain is the ventral segmental system, that neurobiologists call region A10. Cells soaked in dopamine, certain emotions are processed here: such as the thoughts of two lovers - or a _parent and a child_. And it is the synchronization of the threads and bundles of A10 that splice pilot and Eva together; to become one entity, to fight. In other words, the _power of love drives this weapon of mass destruction_."  
– _Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, series character designer, on the concept of Eva synchronization

* * *

Probably one of the most expensive and secretive pieces of military hardware on earth since the US-built Northrop B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, a product of many minds and disciplines, and a security man's nightmare, the red-and-orange-painted Evangelion Production Type Unit-02 towered at 80 meters, dwarfing everything beneath its four-eyed gaze as she stood idle on the test floor while tech crews went about preparing her for the test.

She was built about ten years ago in Germany, when Project E was picking up pace from the start, the urgency of the perilous situation borne by the Second Impact that prompted its construction in response to the possibility of an Angel assault in the near future.

Apart from Gehirn providing the Eva biological body base and core, all cloned from Unit-00, a half-dozen European contractors were hand-selected for their immense resources, cutting-edge technologies, and experience and expertise with military and aerospace contracts. They all took the labor of creating Unit-02 under great secrecy, but ten other subcontractors who created some of the components from blueprints (under different codenames) never saw the final product.

With knowledge gleaned from the construction of Eva Units Zero and One, Unit-02 rectified many of the design flaws and incorporated more advanced subsystems than the other Evas. The design contract stated that since heavy combat against potentially hostile Angels would be expected, Unit-02 was configured and fitted with double the exoskeleton armor plating, a more responsive fire control and actuation system, and a multi-mode sensor and imaging package; to cut costs, a quarter of the components were off-the-shelf systems originally intended for military purposes (i.e. fighter planes, attack helicopters, battle tanks and guided missile destroyers).

In addition, Unit-02 was equipped with a spike launcher pod hidden in the right pylon, a box-cutter Progressive Knife, and the ability to use multiple equipment systems, such as the D-Type High-Temperature/Pressure (Magma Diver) Suit and the still-unfinished S-Type Aerial Recon Flight Pack (designed for independent flight without using bulky and costly Neo Point 400 flying-wing Eva carriers).

Once Unit-02 was completed, the US$6.2 billion Eva was hailed as the ultimate in European industrial cooperation, a triumph of science, and a symbol of recovery from the tragedy of the Second Impact.

Nothing, however, was said for the unspoken tragedy that befell Asuka's mother, who lost half her mind after an apparently successful contact experiment during the final testing phase of Unit-02's development.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 24: COMEBACK PRINCESS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/18/2010 2:03 a7/p7

* * *

At Ritsuko's lab, the suspect laptop was now up and running right on the work table. The woman scientist glanced at the screen, and sure, it looked normal: standard Linux login screen, ready to accept a password, but it was also personalized with the pornographic picture of the killer's favorite AV idol, which annoyed her all the more.

Days ago Gendo had her arrested for wrecking the Dummy Plug Project, and then slapped a flimsy charge of embezzlement, and now… all it took for her to be freed was this laptop. She wondered if there was an impending palace coup; if so, was Fuyutsuki in charge more often than Gendo today? Well, if that was the case, then good riddance that the damned cold prick was losing control; he must be going bananas.

She took a sip of her strong coffee and said to Maya, "This isn't going to be very simple. Looks can be deceiving."

"What about the encryption?" Maya asked.

"If I see it's a familiar scheme," Ritsuko answered while flipping open her laptop, "I have some written routines to deal with them by brute force, and the MAGI can do just that much faster, I believe; but if this guy put in something esoteric, then I'll be having hell a lot more coffee to drink while I work on it… and oh, one thing: where's Misato? And what about the Children?"

Maya paused. "I'll call Hyuga," she said and then picked up the phone, dialed for Makoto, who might be here by now. He was on the line and she put him on speaker mode.

"What is it?" Makoto asked. "I'm about to head over to the Test Facility."

"Do you know where Katsuragi and the Children are?"

"Well… They're here today. Early this morning Director Hamamoto had them moved here for security reasons."

"I see," Maya nodded. "What else?"

"There's due to be a resync test with Asuka later at ten," he said.

"What?" Maya blinked. Ritsuko had a double-take.

"She wants a second chance in Unit Two, I mean."

"Did I miss a lot of things?" Ritsuko asked, loud enough for Makoto to hear.

"Huh? Hey, you're back!" Makoto exclaimed. "Doctor, what are you doing out here today?"

Relieved to hear some more familiar voices, Ritsuko chuckled as she toyed around with Oda's computer, before she popped out the hard drive from its bay. "Well, someone gave me a second chance, too, so I have to crack open this laptop. Can you give me an update what went on while I was behind bars?"

"Sure," Makoto said and he began to summarize all of what happened in the past five or six days. The more Ritsuko listened, the more she was blinking, trying to make sense of it all. She had a bad feeling that the next 72 hours would not mean a peaceful end.

"Doctor, are you there?" Makoto queried.

"Yeah," Ritsuko said. "I believe that you've left out some other details."

"That's true. Can't tell you some of the more interesting parts over the line, but if you want to I could ask Misato to come over."

Ritsuko frowned. She wasn't sure if she could take Misato as a friend this time, but now perhaps it was time to do something right. Maybe… well, just maybe make up for all of her mistakes, and besides, being behind bars gave her a new perspective in life.

"Okay," Ritsuko agreed. "Right after the sync test. I'll have to work on this computer first."

* * *

In his office, Gendo Ikari, in his usual 'thinking' position and seated behind his desk, noted Fuyutsuki's drowsy look as the old man stood before him.

"Where have you been?" he questioned, eyes glaring beneath the amber-colored glasses.

"It's been a very long morning, you see," Fuyutsuki said, trying not to yawn, before he explained about the close call on the Children and the ongoing counter-intelligence hunt for the mole, but he deliberately left out his private drinking spree with Misato. Gendo frowned at the first mention of the killer's name.

"So, he's the one who shot Agent Kaji?"

"Yes," Fuyutsuki confirmed. "He confirmed it right there, before Katsuragi and Kanzaki, and then killed himself. That may sound like a closed chapter, but it's not and we're on yet another, as Section Two's working on the laptop and phone."

The older man decided not to mention Ritsuko's earlier freedom as she was given free rein to break open Oda's encrypted laptop.

"Any evidence so far?"

"Not yet, but personally I believe that only one party is capable of placing moles against us."

Gendo grumbled. "I know. Those impatient old men," he muttered, referring to SEELE. "They're showing their true colors."

"But it's not yet time to raise the alert level," Fuyutsuki said. "Hamamoto needs to do the investigation work quietly behind the scenes, or he'll lose the moles."

"I see," Gendo said, and then his eyes narrowed. "But you forgot to tell me that Akagi is out there now, and I saw you with her. Why?"

Fuyutsuki was surprised, but quickly composed himself and said, "I set her free so that she can help out with the investigation. As I respect her expertise, we still need her services more than ever."

Gendo rose from his seat, seemingly angry. "Have you gone soft again?" he questioned.

"I have no regrets making that decision," Fuyutsuki countered. "There's still any goodness remaining in her, and as with Miss Langley, I don't want to deny her the opportunity for redemption. If you think about what she did down there," he added, referring to the dead Reis in the Dummy Plug Plant, "by now that's been made irrelevant compared to the impending crisis we're facing, and we must act fast. You want a trump card? I've now given you two, Akagi and Langley, simply to save your scenario."

The bearded Commander said nothing as he sank into contemplation, and Fuyutsuki sighed resignedly. For a minute or two there was silence between the men, before the ex-professor asked, "Anything else you wish to say?"

"You're right, but keep an eye on her," Gendo answered.

"I'll keep that in mind. She knows what she's doing."

"Now since you're responsible for bringing back the Second Children, what do you want her to do?" Gendo asked, mentioning Asuka.

"I'll supervise her resync test for today. By now she's ready, and the crew has just finished preparing Unit Two. However, should she fail, there would be no choice except to return home, but if she succeeds..."

Gendo snorted. "It would be a surprise for the Committee," he answered. "Now if that Eva syncs well with her, then I will have a good reason to respect your words."

Fuyutsuki had a double-take. "Well, that's quite strange for you to look at her in a different light now. Yesterday you weren't happy about having her back here."

"As you've said about trump cards, this time we need an advantage," Gendo said. "Or at least something to delay them. On the other hand, the Fifth Children must be watched closely, as it seems that he could be going too far."

The old man frowned. "Why?"

"I ordered the First Children to be careful with him," Gendo said, "while trying to find out about his true intent. Last night they came here together, and then went somewhere without my knowledge. After an hour they left, and on a hunch, I drove there alone, hoping to unmask him yet he wasn't there. Now he's with her again, and so I wonder what they were talking about."

Fuyutsuki frowned. "Why do you have to be worried with such a thing?"

"I will not forgive should anything happens to her, for she's the only one left alive."

_And so you're bothered right now, _Fuyutsuki mused, _just because Nagisa and Ayanami could be in love, so you fear that your investment could be in jeopardy._

"Will you be watching the test from here?" Fuyutsuki asked.

Gendo nodded. "Yes, with the video feed," he answered. "However, just as you said, should she fails, she will then have to leave. That would be final."

Fuyutsuki groaned almost silently. "But, who knows, she might prove us wrong."

"I do not believe in luck," Gendo said. "Only what it takes for us to win before they do."

"I see," Fuyutsuki said, nodding. "I'll see you later, then."

The older man then pivoted before walking away, checking his watch as he opened the door and stepped out of the office.

* * *

At around the same time a program called KDS Antivirus was being updated throughout the wired world. It consisted of an additional 14,832 lines of programming into the main software, plus 64 virus signatures added to its database.

To the public, Kerensky DigiSecure Corporation was one of the largest and highly-respected computer security companies on the planet, whose software are being used in homes, schools, and offices. It is also responsible for issuing digital certificates for electronic financial transactions. But to SEELE, however, the company is a profitable business front, to provide covert hacking and electronic surveillance operations for the organization.

The seemingly benign program updates are to be used as a hidden mechanism for the most powerful hacking tool in history; included in the lines of code—encrypted, of course—were several target IP addresses belonging to NERV.

* * *

After Maya left some 30 minutes ago for her assigned station at the Test Facility, Ritsuko had the suspect hard disk hooked up to her Hardbook with a USB cable, running an analyzer program in an attempt to decode the contents. She was right in figuring that Oda was using an unusual encryption method to secure his hard drive; he was using an advanced file system with double scramble, probably a new algorithm for military use. Even if she let the MAGI scan it, it would take much time, maybe hours, or even days before she could finally recover the data.

_How could I make a dead man speak?_ She thought, drumming her fingers on the work table. _This is all what he had left._

Ritsuko recalled from a seminar on computer security, that most breakable passwords are the ones that were easily remembered, such as birthdates, a wife's name, a phone number, a popular phrase or the name of a public personality. Hence the prohibition of the use of such passwords due to data theft, requiring anyone to enter unusual passwords with extra characters and memorizing them. In addition, some computer users with forgetful tendencies often leave a scrap of paper with their username and password written on, another cardinal sin in computer security.

There were also some other options, such as the use of biometric information to further authenticate the user, with embedded fingerprint scanners. In the case of Oda's laptop, thankfully there was no sign of such a security feature; in that case she would probably need to surgically peel the skin off Oda's index finger or a thumb, and use it as a gory last-ditch solution.

So, as she lit a cigarette and going back to the problem at hand, Ritsuko wondered if Oda had made such a mistake. Perhaps his personal interests could be a potential clue to his password. She was sure that, for example, anime fans have a mistaken tendency to use a favorite character's name as a password; same thing with soap opera fans, music lovers, and so on.

In a cloud of Seven Stars smoke, Ritsuko pursed her lips, thinking hard on that possibility until she remembered the girl's picture on the login screen, on the first time she booted up the suspect laptop. _Was that the password?_

An imaginary light bulb lit up over her head.

Quickly she crushed the butt into the ashtray, canceled the analyzer and went back to plugging the hard drive into Oda's computer, booted up and there was the AV idol on the login screen, whose surname was emblazoned across the navel, just under the breasts.

_Ozawa._

Could it work? It made sense. After all, Oda must've been a horny sonofabitch, and so she took the gigantic risk of typing in the name and then her finger was poised on the Enter key. A warning on the bottom of the login screen stated that if the user failed to enter a valid password the computer will erase the hard drive contents completely… or so its owner claimed just like a "Beware of Dog" warning sign posted on the front yard.

_Do or die, here goes nothing,_ Ritsuko told herself as she typed the five letters before pressing the Enter key.

Click.

The operating system immediately went to the desktop screen, icons, menus and all. Bingo.

Ritsuko was relieved. She took a deep breath and then broke into laughter, which lasted for about three minutes before she picked up the phone and dialed up Hamamoto's office number.

"Any progress?" the old director asked over the line.

"I finally hit the jackpot," Ritsuko said.

"How did you do it?"

"A grand mistake on our dead man's part. Well, I'll check his documents first, and then scan the whole drive. I'll see if he has some logs recorded, including IP addresses, contacts, accounts, and so on. It's a no-brainer from here."

Hamamoto sounded pleased. "Okay, now call me back if you find anything else significant. Thanks, Doctor."

Ritsuko smiled. "You're welcome. Later I'll send you anything you'll need."

* * *

Asuka stood before the Entry Plug, with its seat ready to accept her presence. Just a few meters below, was the gaping maw of Unit-02's spinal cavity, which would receive the plug. She then looked up and saw Misato, Shinji and Natsumi standing by at the control room, and everyone there were busy preparing for the synchronization test.

Like a long-absent actress behind the curtain, about to return to the spotlight onstage, she then closed her eyes and bowed her head, arms crossed, trying to remember everything she learned before, forgiving everyone whom she offended, and hoping that somewhere her mother was listening.

She also remembered talking to Shinji earlier, just after gearing up in the locker room.

"_I told you yesterday that you have the spotlight," Asuka said, now wearing her familiar red plug suit once she came out of the room. She looked calm this time._

"_I know," Shinji answered, who stood before her._

"_For now it's gonna be my turn and I must make up for all the mistakes I did."_

"_What about your last sync rate?" Shinji asked, sounding worried. "I heard it was near zero."_

_Asuka nudged closer to Shinji and stared at him. "Yeah, but I hope I could be right this time, and I want my life back. This'll be my risk. If I lose, I'll accept whatever they'll say and leave, or if I finally get past the forty mark that's when I find forgiveness."_

_The girl took the boy's hand. "Whether I lose or win," Asuka decided, "I want to come back to you. I don't care if you laugh or cry, 'cause you're no different from me. And by the way, sorry again for slapping you back there a week ago."_

_Both knew that day, when Shinji said Kaji wouldn't be coming back forever, and Asuka slapped him before lapsing into shock. They remembered the coffee pot knocked out of his hands, spilling onto the table before dripping over to the floor. Next thing Asuka ran to the bedroom and cried, wailing Kaji's name behind closed doors while Shinji cringed._

_But that episode seemed a long time ago, a mere memory of sorrow and tragedy._

"_I know… Yet, we've got to forgive and forget," Shinji said, nodding, before he began to kiss her softly, the act lasting for almost half a minute. Just like yesterday at the airport, not like the awkward first time when they bungled it as amateurs, but this time…_

"_I wish you luck, girl," Shinji whispered, before he smiled. "We'll be watching you."_

"_Thanks, love," Asuka said, saying the word 'love' for the first time out of genuine affection, before she grinned, let go of him and walked away towards the plug platform, led by two technicians who silently watched them for a few minutes. _

As the crew chief gestured her to come and get seated, Asuka opened her eyes and recalled the memories of being at her best, the exhilaration of battle, and the rewards of victory. She saw battle with Angels many times, but this time her enemy… no, the only obstacle she needed to overcome was _herself_.

Once she slid her body into the cockpit seat, and took a deep breath before giving the crew chief a thumbs-up to close the cover over her, Asuka hoped that she would find her mother in the sunflower field.

* * *

Up at the control room, Misato was talking to Natsumi, who looked anxious as they stood by and watched the crew below swarming around Unit-02, giving final touches to their preparations. Just behind them the technicians were busy at their workstations, making last-minute adjustments to the systems, double-checking everything. Not far away, Shinji silently stood, waiting and watching to pass the time.

Yet what made this test very special was the intense security: from the beginning while Unit-02 was being moved to the test site, heavily-armed security troops kept guard against potential saboteurs, as a preventive measure so as not to repeat the debacle that plagued the aborted compatibility test with Unit-01 days ago, when a rogue agent quietly disabled the Bakelite system.

"It's been long since the last time she was inside," Misato remarked.

"True," Natsumi said. "She hit rock-bottom zero on the synchrograph, and that alone is enough to be a career-wrecker."

"Hmmm… Do you still think that menstruation affects performance?"

"If I could remember correctly, Doctor Akagi listed down several factors that are responsible for lowered sync performance, whether it's physical, psychological or emotional. Now, contrary to what she claims, in my opinion negative emotions stemming from menstruation periods—and bad childhoods—_do_ have an equally bad effect on sync performance, and so, yes, it does. Where can you find a woman who doesn't have a bad hair day full of cramps while suffering through a period?"

"What about now?" Misato asked.

"If a pilot's emotional well-being is up-peak, naturally his or her sync rate would give a positive boost. However, we'll never know until she's inside and all powered up… and, hey, I didn't notice before, but what's with the new rank pins you got? Who gave them to you?"

Natsumi pointed her finger at the pins on Misato's collar.

Blinking, Misato tugged at her uniform collar, showing the new lieutenant-colonel rank, and said, "Oh. Nothing spectacular when I got them from the Sub-Commander last night, but I have more command responsibility this time."

"Congratulations, then," Natsumi said, grinning as she shook Misato's hand.

Misato nodded. "Thanks."

Just then one of the higher-ranking techs saw Fuyutsuki come inside, prompting him to call out, "Attention on deck!"

In unison, everyone stood up and saluted at the Sub-Commander, before he saluted back and said, "At ease, people."

Once the rest of the control room resumed their business, Fuyutsuki asked, "How she's doing?"

"Well, sir, I did the preliminary checkup," Natsumi reported, pointing at the screen where Asuka's Entry Plug was ready to be loaded into Unit-02. "In a nutshell, her physical condition's right this time, and on the emotional side, she's determined. I'd say it's a go."

Fuyutsuki nodded, and then shot a glance at Makoto Hyuga, who held his own report. "What about the Eva's physical condition?"

"They made a full inspection a couple of hours ago," Makoto said, reading from the paper, "and then routine diagnostics. No damage or any anomalies since the last activation."

"Good," Fuyutsuki said. He glanced around and made a waving gesture to pay attention to him, before announcing aloud to the crew: "Everyone present, I have something to say before we start."

Interrupted again, the entire control room crew rose to their feet. Satisfied, Fuyutsuki took a breath and spoke.

"Effective today," he declared, "owing to her recent actions beyond the call of duty this week, especially under fire just yesterday, Major Misato Katsuragi, an officer of good standing, is now officially promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. As such, she will be expected to take on greater command responsibilities than ever before, although she will remain as Operations Manager for the Eva program, and therefore still responsible for the Children as their guardian. Ladies and gentlemen, please give her applause of congratulation."

Promptly everyone clapped vigorously, with even cheers and whistles. Makoto, Maya and Shigeru raised their fists and grinned at Misato, now blushing slightly at this generous display of praise and, thanking them back, she bowed in gratitude.

With a relieved sigh and a nod, Fuyutsuki gestured to everyone to settle down and begin the sync test, and then he leaned towards Misato's ear.

"As far as the investigation is concerned," he whispered. "We're halfway through, but first I have set Ritsuko free."

Misato looked surprised. "That's good news, but…"

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes. I had all those false charges dropped away from her, because a brilliant mind is terrible to waste. Right now she's part of the investigation effort, trying to open the laptop, to see who's pulling Oda's strings, and by now she should be able to crack it. If you still have any issues with her that must be settled, you can try right after this test, and regarding the Fifth, we'll discuss about him later."

"Okay, sir," Misato said, grinning. "Thanks."

* * *

Kaworu and Rei were walking to the direction of the Test Facility when she said, "I have a feeling… I am not sure if Unit Two would be able to sync with Pilot Soryu."

"Why? What's wrong?" Kaworu asked.

"I doubt if that Eva would still be receptive to Pilot Soryu. I remember that her sync rate lowered as she became angry."

"I know why," Kaworu said. "I know it because I've been inside twice. Her soul retreated, not wanting to do any further. Yes, Eva does also have feelings, and they could sense what the pilots feel."

"That is true," Rei agreed.

"However, there's a way."

"What would be done?"

Kaworu sighed. "It's a matter of negotiation. I never done this before, but maybe I'll try to talk to the soul."

Rei looked doubtful. "You need to be in the Entry Plug to do it."

"I just have to, even if it's a long shot."

Now they stood before the control room's door, and two sentries were present, armed as usual. Kaworu and Rei produced their IDs and showed them to the men, who nodded in approval. The doors parted and they walked in, instantly awash with the hubbub of activity as technical staff pored over their displays, making adjustments to the subsystems they were assigned to.

First the two Children looked up to one of the plug video feeds, with Asuka sitting right in the cockpit, before they saw Shinji and the others standing there, watching, and then both Children walked towards them. Just then Shinji turned around, smiled and said, "Hey! Haven't seen you two since yesterday. Where have you been?"

Shinji's outburst grabbed the attention of the adults present, who pivoted and gave the other two Children a surprised look. In Misato's case she merely gaped and blinked.

Both Children bowed their heads, before Kaworu grinned and Rei produced a soft smile. "Sorry, we're been out of the picture for most of the time after you and Asuka left that afternoon… and uh, good morning, Misato, and good morning, Sub-Commander."

Misato nodded. "Good morning to you," both officers answered in unison.

"We heard you got into trouble," Kaworu said. "But we got only bits and pieces of it."

"Right. Again, where have you been yesterday?" Misato asked both Children, as Fuyutsuki listened.

"Well… Rei and I went out to her home, stayed there and talked, while you were…" Kaworu trailed off, trying to say the right words.

"Ambushed," Misato corrected him. "In almost twenty-four hours trouble paid us a visit twice, dodged bullets, and I still don't know who the hell were trying to kill us. But I'll leave all that to tell you more of the details later, so…" the woman hesitated, "Tell me, what's going on with you two? Something serious?"

"Let's say we… We just got to know each other on an intimate level," Kaworu said.

Shinji was confused with Kaworu's cryptic response. "What do you mean?"

Kaworu and Rei looked at each other, guessing how they could explain it in simple terms how they finally hit it off, before the Fifth Children told them the truth by simply clasping his hand with Rei's. Their companions noted the quiet gesture, and the astonishing answer dawned upon them.

They were in love.

"I was right," Fuyutsuki said, breaking the silence and then the old man shook his head and smiled as if he was a proud father. "We'll have to make this a top secret," he quipped. But inwardly he wondered what the consequences would be like now that these two enigmatic Children are having a serious relationship.

The countdown timer right on the main display now told them they were less than five minutes away from activation, and Fuyutsuki took a breath, his mood turning to business-serious.

"Let's get on with the test first," he said. "We'll tell stories later after this one."

* * *

Still waiting for the countdown, sitting in the cockpit, Asuka zoned out for a moment, thinking the last time she was in the plug, on her failed sortie.

At that time, they launched her up, then Misato ordered her to try to move out and go shoot at the Angel that was about to kill Rei and Unit-00. Once they released the restraints, Asuka was shocked that Unit-02 couldn't move at all, and she checked her sync rate: _zero percent_, barely enough to sync yet too inadequate to move her Eva an inch; the supreme object of her expression of ultimate power became an 80-meter statue, and the humiliation was final.

Just before they pulled her back, she momentarily saw Rei being assaulted by that rope-like Angel, boring into Unit-00's chest, seeking for the core.

Asuka closed her eyes, and thought of her past rivalry with the First Children; that girl was competition then, an affront to her superiority, a doll with a porcelain mask, seemingly having the ear of the Commander.

But Rei was no different from her despite their opposite extremes of personality, acknowledging weaknesses that she never revealed before, and Rei was probably struggling within to free herself of the strings that bound her to command.

Now Asuka looked up and saw the other three Children watching her. Asuka thought of what they were feeling this time, what was in their minds. Perhaps they came either to be witnesses or as judges, to see if she learned something in the long ordeal of being in bed.

"Wish me luck," Asuka whispered, and then she heard the klaxons, a warning to prepare for the sync test.

* * *

Fuyutsuki now turned his attention to the technicians under his responsibility, and the atmosphere took on the critical intensity of a rocket launch.

"Each one of you, check and confirm yourselves for systems go," he ordered them, as he held a clipboard with a readiness checklist.

"Life Support," Fuyutsuki called out.

"It's a go," a tech replied.

"Pilot Monitoring."

"A confirmed go," another chimed.

"Synapse Control."

"Ready to go, sir."

This went on as each of the techs verified their readiness status: Eva systems monitoring, electrical supply and control, LCL supply and control, plug subsystems control, communications, data linkage, security restraint control, emergency backup systems, recording, damage control, and so on.

Once done with the list, Fuyutsuki cleared his throat. "Ibuki, start up the systems," he commanded.

"Yes sir," Ibuki answered as she went busy on the keyboard.

"Excellent," Fuyutsuki remarked before he glanced up at the banks of video feeds. "Are you ready now?" he asked Asuka.

"I'm ready, sir," she answered, the girl looked determined to return.

"Good. Lieutenant, prepare to throw the switches and insert the plug," Fuyutsuki directed, hearing the whines of the actuators and pistons as they inserted the plug into the red warrior's back and sealed shut, before the injector pumped thousands of liters of LCL into the plug.

As the plug was being filled, Asuka began to breathe in the oxygenated liquid, the familiarity of its presence in her lungs slowly coming back to her.

"Initial plug depth has been set at 0.105, plug data has been reprogrammed for Langley. LCL pressure, temperature and oxygenation are at nominal levels. Main power is ready to be activated," Shigeru reported, reading off his display.

"Just right. Now connect and activate the main power circuits," Fuyutsuki ordered as they kept an eye on several consoles showing the full status of every system and sensor in Unit-02, before Shigeru threw the huge red switches forward.

Electricity immediately surged into the umbilical cable on the back of Unit-02 with a growing hum. The huge of readouts and indicators on the displays began to show how far all the figures were climbing.

"Voltage increasing to the critical point... 0.5... 0.2... approaching towards nominal levels," Maya reported.

* * *

While everyone was focused on Unit-02, Kaworu quietly slid his hand onto Rei's and clasped gently. He sighed, praying that she could make it through.

Rei almost had the same thoughts, wishing her advice be made manifest.

At the same time, from his office, Gendo Ikari watched everything on his monitor, the video feed being streamed right to him. It was irrelevant for him whether Asuka makes it or not. All he needed was anyone to follow his orders down to the letter, to ensure that anything must go according to plan.

As her search program was turning up hundreds of files in Oda's laptop, Ritsuko turned to her computer, opened a media player program, and via network selected the video stream to tune into the synchronization test live feed.

But Shinji and Misato nervously held their breath, wondering what would happen next. Asuka was now in the spotlight and onstage, ready to perform once more before a judging audience.

* * *

"Go for second stage, ladies and gentlemen," Fuyutsuki ordered.

"Synapses inserted. Junction in progress," Shigeru reported.

"Pulses transmitted. All circuits are operational. No problems with the initial contacts, all confirmed." Maya announced again.

"Power has been transmitted to the upper muscle group and is active. No problems with the nerve links, sir," Shigeru said.

In the plug, Asuka was rushing through a series of rainbows, synaptic fireworks blazing the walls, along with flashes of light and sparks, towards eventual synchronization. It looked as if she was being pulled into a wormhole, like Alice dropping down the rabbit's warren into Wonderland.

Maya nodded in latent satisfaction. "Up to 2550 link points on the list here also all accounted for," she added, before the indicator lights broke through the Absolute Borderline. "She has cleared the line, sir."

"Okay, Lieutenant. Now I need the A-10 contacts on initial," Fuyutsuki ordered as he saw everything in the green, before he looked at Asuka again.

"Roger, connecting the A-10 now," Ibuki told back as she typed out a string of commands on the keyboard. The display then showed Asuka's A-10 being interfaced into Unit-02's A-10, until it indicated a successful hookup.

"The connection to the A-10 nerve is operational," Makoto confirmed.

There was now the system control configuration being run, every variable adjusted to Asuka's profile and personal physiological data.

"Eva Unit Two system control switched to Japanese as primary thought language. All initial contacts are set," Ibuki noted, before she checked the display for the sync rate. "The mutual lines are connected. Synchronization rate is…"

Maya did a double-take, disbelief and disappointment crossing her face.

"_Zero_?" she muttered, and at the same time the rest of the entire control room gasped in dismay and, in frustration, Fuyutsuki banged his fist on the console. He couldn't believe it.

* * *

Suddenly the whole plug blacked out, except for the small auxiliary lights recessed into the plug. Whatever hopes that Asuka had for a comeback were instantly dashed, and the girl was shocked for a few moments before she mumbled, "What the…?"

Asuka shook the butterfly controls. No reaction. Only silence, excruciating silence, the whole plug no more silent than a sarcophagus.

"Come on… Please."

The girl's eyes were darting left and right, still wondering what the hell happened.

"Why?" Asuka pleaded. "I want to change! I want to be a better person… Please, I want to show you, sync with me! I want to find you in the field, can't you remember that? Mama! Help me! Forgive me! I even prayed for you, so give me a chance! MAMA! I'm not a piece of junk! Please!"

Tears began to float away from Asuka's eyes, as if all chances of redemption were lost. She fell back to her seat, utterly defeated as the girl sobbed.

* * *

Everyone at the control room heard Asuka's anguish, and Misato gritted her teeth in frustration. "Asuka, you have to hang on!" she said, watching the girl from the video feed. "We're gonna try everything just to get you back on track."

Agonized, Shinji grasped his head and bent down, as if partly responsible for the girl's failure.

"Why it has to be like this?" Asuka retorted, and the girl went back to her crying.

Just a distance away from Misato, Kaworu was distraught yet he and Rei knew it's happening now. "I think you're right," he said, referring to her earlier doubts.

"I do not want to see her feel disappointed," Rei answered.

Kaworu nodded, and then he closed his eyes, concentrating, focused upon Unit-02. In his mind he imagined rushing through a vortex of images until he stood before her soul within the core, bent into a fetal position, shaking and crying, still clutching the rag doll in her embrace.

"_Why do you have to be afraid?" Kaworu asked Kyoko. "Why you couldn't give her a chance?"_

"_I… I can't," Kyoko whispered between sobs. "She still hates me."_

_Kaworu sighed. "But she has changed," he said. "Can't you see it?"_

"_I… It's my fault that I lost half of myself," Kyoko admitted, "that the body I let go of from the plug a long time ago wasn't me; that other me has gone mad, turned my daughter against me, while my husband betrayed me. And when she came to pilot me, I thought she understood what I am, but instead…"_

"_She's not what you think of anymore," Kaworu countered. "She has forgiven everyone, and she's willing to forgive you. To be sure, she has accepted what she truly is, finally realizing that denying the past had almost cost her life."_

_Kyoko said nothing. _

"_Asuka wants to live, but understand that your daughter needs to prove that she can be much more of a better person than she ever was before. Now if you truly love your daughter, then you must show her your affection in a way you thought to be impossible. Asuka's ready now; she wants to try again; she asks for your love and needs to make peace with you. It's time to let go and look towards the future. Be not afraid."_

_The older woman blinked, trying to make sense of Kaworu's plea, pondering for what felt like an eternity, before the memories of the sunflower field came back to her. Kyoko slowly stood up onto her feet, and then she lifted up the doll over her head, before hugging it closer to her chest._

"_What can I do?" Kyoko asked, calm this time._

_Kaworu smiled in gratitude. "Be with her right now. Look into her heart and mind this time, and it doesn't take too much to show that you truly care."_

* * *

"Why?" Asuka lamented, but in a more subdued and defeated tone, her hands letting go of the controls. She wondered if it was her mistake for the sync to fail.

_Is this my fault? Have I done something wrong? _

_No… I must calm down… I need to concentrate… Please, Mama, I know you're hearing me; this is my only chance left._

She then sighed deeply, before closing her eyes, trying to relax and think of the sunflower field. She was desperately racing through the undergrowth, parting away the stalks and leaves, finding her way out and into her mother's arms.

But then Asuka sensed a warm feeling enveloping her, and she opened her eyes to find herself staring back at her mother, who was floating right in front, dressed in a diaphanous gown. Kyoko looked serene, smiling as she touched Asuka's forehead. At first the girl was speechless in shock, yet quickly everything made sense.

"Mama?" she gasped. "You were here?"

_Kyoko nodded in return. "I'm sorry if I neglected you for too long," she whispered. "It's my fault."_

Asuka was blinking. "Why do you have to be here? Why it has to be your fault?"

"_This was supposed to be my life's work," Kyoko said. "But it consumed a part of me, just as it consumed the others, so I paid the price. The woman you saw then on the bed wasn't me, but you're now looking at my true self. Forgive me if I left you alone, for the pain and the suffering, and what you have become..."_

Asuka managed a hard lump in her throat. "N… No, I'm sorry for what I did… or said to you."

_The older apparition sighed instead. "It is settled and all's forgiven, Asuka. Rather, I want you to live on… No, we have to live on." Kyoko then smiled. "From today, I'll protect you this time… so I love you."_

This time Asuka was crying tears of gratitude.

"Thank you, Mama," she whispered, having found her at last in the middle of the field, holding her mother's hand this time.

"_Let's go home, then," Kyoko answered, laughing lightly before everything around Asuka came alive and online._

* * *

Maya blinked again, as she saw a flicker of a bar on the sync meter. She peered closer and said, "Sir, I think we're getting an unusual reading this time."

"What?" Fuyutsuki asked before he glanced at the main display. The sync rate was showing 0.5% at first, then 1.2%, increasing steadily as it cleared 10%, before reaching 22%. They could even hear a growing hum coming from Unit-02, and most of everyone in the control room dropped their jaws.

"I'm having increases in most of the figures across the board," Shigeru reported. "We're seeing growing activity within the Eva. Synapses are being energized."

Fuyutsuki then turned to the rest of the control crew. "Are we recording this?"

"Yes, everything on her, sir!" Makoto answered, the sensors reading off Unit-02 and recording the data in real time. "Look at that! She's beyond the minimum functional limit!" he called out, pointing at the displays, and then at Unit-02, whose four eyes were ablaze. "She's now getting on sync!"

In reaction, great cheers erupted in the control room as Asuka and Unit-02 overcame the 40% marker, watching her laugh and cry at the same time in the Entry Plug. The crew was shaking hands, clapping, doing high-fives and hugs, especially with Shinji and Misato, overcome with emotion as they embraced and danced around. Fuyutsuki merely sighed in pleasure, and Natsumi was trying not to cry too much.

As for Rei and Kaworu, they could only look at each other and smile softly, their clasped hands holding tight as though victorious.

"She has understood at last," Rei whispered.

The Fifth Children exhaled in relief, and shrugged. "Well… Sometimes it just takes a bit of a nudge to make miracles happen."

* * *

In the Entry Plug, Asuka breathed in relief, and then she settled down to business. Her eyes ran over status displays on the HUD, the figures are in the green, and nodded.

"Are you doing fine?" Fuyutsuki asked her through the comlink.

"Roger that, sir," Asuka replied, as she checked her current sync rate on the HUD: it was at 42.9%, a bit higher than Shinji's first time on Unit-01, and this rate was considered perfectly normal. She felt like as if today was now akin to having her birthday and all the holidays thrown into one.

The Sub-Commander cleared his throat. "You'll have to stick around for about thirty minutes for us to check if your sync rate stabilizes itself."

Asuka nodded eagerly. "Okay, sir. I'll keep it that way."

"All harmonics values are normal. Everything is under control," Maya added, her video screen barging in. "I'd say… Congratulations!"

"Thanks!" Asuka answered.

"Now, young lady, I'll be frank this time: yours is quite a very slim chance, so I was wondering, how did you manage to bring Unit Two back?" Fuyutsuki asked, completely skeptical.

The Second Children shrugged, not wanting to tell what transpired in the plug, but instead she said, "Can't say much, but… I found my Mama!"

* * *

Back at the office, Gendo Ikari shook his head as he watched the whole video feed on the monitor: they loaded Asuka in the plug and powered up Unit-02, and then a zero sync-rate before the unexpected reactivation which finally brought the whole control room in a paroxysm of cheerful pandemonium.

How that happened? Impossible.

Was it luck? No… Perhaps.

Behind his glasses, Gendo's eyes narrowed, figuring out an explanation for all this, and… He remembered unusual anomalies like that, all exclusively done by Unit-01, of cases of independent activation and that single 400% sync phenomenon in which the Eva nearly claimed and absorbed Shinji. If such things happened before with Unit-01, then it's not impossible for Unit-02 to make a surprising turnaround like this one happening now.

The bearded Commander picked up the phone and dialed for Fuyutsuki down at the control room. Once connected, at first he could hear excited chatter coming from the technicians in the background.

"Yes?" Fuyutsuki answered. "It's done. It's also a success."

"I know," Gendo said, before he recalled the old man's earlier assertion. "You win this time again," he added.

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat. "I'm not a gambler but a scientist, yet anyone gambles for a winning chance even without holding the cards or rolling the dice, and this is a case of luck. Miss Langley beat the odds, and now we have what you wish for."

Gendo said nothing for a moment, before breaking the silence. "In their impatience, those old men tried to badger us to speed things up, but we took matters in our own hands," he said, referring to SEELE. "Then they attempted to stop us, cripple what we have, and now it would be interesting to see what their reactions would be like once they know that Unit-02 is back."

For a while he watched Kaworu and Rei onscreen as they held hands together, before he concluded, "We'll keep Miss Langley, and tell her that effective immediately she will resume her duties."

"Yes, I'll inform her," Fuyutsuki said. "I'll also take care of things here while we're putting her through a stability test," he added. "See you later."

The Sub-Commander disconnected before Gendo put down the receiver, resumed his favorite thinking position and murmured, this time in a pleased tone. Now that this episode with Asuka was done with, he would tackle the matter of the Fifth Children, and so he grabbed the phone and dialed for Director Hamamoto.

"What can I do for you?" the director asked.

Gendo said, "I insist that you people must start placing closer surveillance on the Fifth Children, and I want to find out exactly about his activities."

"We'll do whatever we can," Hamamoto complied. "As for our investigation, thanks to Doctor Akagi, we're closing in with some suspicious email addresses and phone numbers, so we put a trace on them."

"Go on."

"It appears that much of the conversation traffic between Oda and his handlers originated somewhere in Europe. That's all what we have so far, sir."

"I see, but I want this done as soon as possible."

"Will do, sir," he said before disconnecting.

Once Gendo set the phone aside, he said, "Some may attempt to alter every variable and all; some try to interfere outright, and some even resort to violent options, but still… Everything is going according to the scenario."

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **This chapter is partly full of R's: first, three drafts and several nights of _reassembling_ and _rearranging_ most of the paragraphs, and then _remixing_ all of them right here; ideas that were otherwise previously discarded were _rehashed_ and _rewritten_ before I pasted them in some sections; and old snippets of original story ideas in RTF documents were kept in reserve until I _retrieved_ and _reedited_ them into the chapters.

Well… Now that Asuka has finally got her groove back on Unit-02, I'm guessing that some people are guessing what would come in the next chapter. Can't say but soon I'm going to throw in whatever's left of Episode 24 and expand much of its important parts, just as I did with Season One.

On the other hand, in one previous chapter a reader claimed that our favorite pairing has just … you know. But that wasn't what I really meant, so I changed that by adding "still fully clothed". Sorry, it's not yet their time to dance on the bed. Not yet.

And again, just say NO to "Swifties" (laughs).

Still, many thanks and good morning to those who picked this fic up and gave their comments (and criticisms) or added me and LW to their Author/Story Update Alerts. I'll hold on and write more.


	25. Negotiation, Part 1

Despite being awash with the euphoria of Asuka's comeback, borne from the successful reactivation of Unit-02, the other thing that occupied Misato's mind throughout the whole time was on how she could deal with Kaworu, who stood alongside Rei just a few meters away from her.

Meanwhile, Shinji was watching Asuka via video feed on the main display, the boy munching on Pocky sticks from the red box, as the girl in the cockpit was preoccupied with the piped-in pop music to kill boredom. For now, the control room staff was busy supervising the girl and the Eva, as they put them through a stability test to ensure that her new sync rate was no flash in the pan. So far, they were five minutes into the stability test proper, with Asuka's sync rate leveled out at 42% with no noticeable problems.

Fuyutsuki was preoccupied, talking to the crew, discussing their analyses and findings, while Natsumi was with Maya, deep in conversation while keeping tabs on Asuka's vital signs.

Knowing that Kaworu was no doubt an Angel, Misato wondered what was on his mind, what plans he must've conceived, and what that boy was really up to.

Should anyone tries to kill Kaworu, a gun will be out of the question, as he was clearly the Committee's perfect 'smart' weapon, and Angels _always_ have an AT-Field, and of course _only_ an Eva can cancel out and bring down that Field with their own before killing their opponents.

However, 'smart' as Kaworu may seem to be, humans are flawed, and with Misato figuring that he was made almost in the same way that Rei was created, he could also possess such flaws.

Like having human emotions.

Ever since the first time they met Misato took note of his speech pattern; Kaworu sounded lively, confident, frank, open, and very intelligent for a fifteen-year-old teenager. Yet amazingly he fell for Rei, a girl who's his polar opposite in terms of emotions, so he must've opened up his true feelings.

Misato also tried to figure out as to how they managed to hit it off, and what actually transpired on that afternoon, when those two Children were alone with each other.

The woman officer shook her head, and then she went back to her plot, thinking what should be the best approach to negotiation. _I want to confront him, but how can I tell Kaworu the truth? _

* * *

On the other hand, Kaworu was sure that Misato was watching him, figuring out that she must be waiting, probably wishing to talk, and somehow she might have unraveled the truth behind his identity.

"Rei," Kaworu whispered.

"Yes?"

"I need to talk to Misato," he said, holding her hand. "I can feel it, so just wait for me, okay? Might take a while."

Rei nodded before Kaworu walked over to Misato, who was surprised to see him come to her. Before she could speak, the Fifth Children answered, "I know you're waiting for me."

"How did you know?" Misato asked, having a bit of a double-take. She couldn't believe that Kaworu was that much perceptive.

Kaworu shook his head. "I can't tell you here, so instead why don't we find a quiet place to talk?"

Misato nodded. "Sure," she agreed. "I know there's a good spot somewhere."

As they were about to walk out of the control room, Shinji noticed this and he asked, "Wait, where you're going?"

Misato replied, "Something very important. It's just between me and him, so don't worry, we'll be back."

"Okay," Shinji said and he watched her and Kaworu go out of the door.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 25: NEGOTIATION PART I  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/23/2010 19:33 a7/p7

* * *

Misato and Kaworu went out of the control room, turned right and walked down the hallway. They stopped at a room, whose door was labeled "Equipment Maintenance and Repair Room". The woman nodded to Kaworu and she opened the door, and they walked in.

The room contained several lockers; on their far right, a work table and several toolboxes on top, and to the left shelves held banks of electronic equipment. Once Misato closed and locked the door, she said, "All right, I'm going to be very diplomatic, and this time we're talking very serious here, and very personal, so I want you to explain everything first."

For a few moments Kaworu didn't waver before her gaze, as she waited for him to speak.

"I believe that you've already know who I am," he finally said, breaking the silence.

"An _Angel_," Misato answered.

"Yes, you're right," Kaworu said, nodding. "I was sent here and supposed to act as a replacement for Asuka. That was my cover, and will you tell me how did you obtain this knowledge?"

Misato sighed, and she began to enumerate her findings. "First, someone said that your sync rate during the first test showed just how easy for you to manipulate it, like you can raise or lower it at your whim. They managed to record all that, and I saw the results of that test. Second, your DNA sequence is an anomaly, as you share certain characteristics with other Angels. Finally, the Committee gave us nothing except a birth date. All that makes you a red flag."

"They're all true," Kaworu said. "Actually, I have _no_ intent to do any harm."

"Why?"

"I changed my mind, after reconsidering my plan to contact Adam. I'm _not_ going to do that. It's out of the question now."

The woman had a double-take, blinking her eyes. "That's what Angels are _supposed_ to do, attack and try to contact Adam. Why can't you?"

"Humanity still has a chance to redeem itself, and I understood why, through the pain and suffering of others, of joy and happiness. Humans don't need to be punished any further, as the Second Impact is disastrous enough that people should be remorseful, think about their own actions and the future of their existence. Furthermore, any civilization with high culture, rather than its wealth, territory, and weaponry, has a reason to be respected and preserved. A song is an example of high culture; to me it means that humans are capable of fostering peaceful coexistence and of enlightenment."

"So because of that, you don't want to cause Third Impact?"

"I really don't want to, all for the sake of people like you, Shinji and Asuka… and because I love Rei."

Misato shook her head

Kaworu said, "I have something else to tell. Like how and where I actually came from."

"How?"

The young man sighed. "I was cloned from what was left of Adam, and combined with genetic material from a Lilim, and in the same purpose as with Rei, I was made as the vessel for Adam's soul."

"And who created you?"

In a flashback, Kaworu remembered the old man he watched while floating in his containment tank, talking to Chairman Lorenz.

"Doctor Steingarten… Naoko Akagi's colleague in the field of bioengineering. I know that because back then I heard him talking to the Chairman several times before; they created me in the same way they created Rei, yet I was raised differently."

Misato blinked, realizing that she was going deep into uncharted territory, and possibly an opportunity to gain answers to Kaji's riddles, hearing promising first-hand information from what was clearly a very reliable source. "Who's the Chairman?"

"I believe that you've came across him before," Kaworu said. "He's Chairman Lorenz."

The woman had a quick recall of that day at the holographic communications room: she confronted five men seated around a long table, old men in robe-like suits; and at the head of the table was the leader of them all, a visor across his eyes, silvery hair, and an age-induced bulk. She could even remember the voice of that man as he spoke to her.

"I remember him. He's the member of the Human Instrumentality Committee," Misato answered. "Does it mean that… you're supposed to work for him?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "Now… Tell me, are you involved with the incidents in the last 24 hours? Those men trying to kill us? Are you working alongside them?"

The Fifth Children frowned. "No, I'm not connected to them. I was supposed to work independently. In fact, I never even know all about them."

Misato looked cross. "Why not? It's a coincidence that you came here, and then all the sudden bullets are flying everywhere! Who are they, anyway?"

Kaworu sighed. "They must be working on behalf of the Committee."

"What? You mean they wanted Asuka dead?"

"Apparently they desired conditions to make it easier to implement their agenda, and so I think they gave someone the orders to remove her as soon as possible."

"So it makes sense…" Misato trailed off, her mind making associations between seemingly unrelated incidents.

"Now because of their impatience, using other men to implement violent action, I don't want to be associated with them and their agenda any longer. Their treacherous actions gave me impetus to rethink my supposed goals, and so I decided to turn my back from their scheme."

"Wait," Misato said. "Are you changing sides?"

"Yes. I'm on _your_ side now."

"But you're an Angel. How could I trust you?"

"Because you're one of the few people left who are worthy enough for me, to listen and, if necessary, take action. I also believe you can still keep a secret." Kaworu heaved a sigh. "Do you have anything else for me to answer?"

"Apart from him using thugs for the dirty work, what does the Chairman _actually_ wants you to do?" she asked.

"Well… Besides replacing Asuka and attempting to contact Adam," Kaworu said. "On orders I'm also supposed to befriend Shinji… and then later break his will by betraying him, to foster doubt, hatred and pain in him… In short, try to drive him to destruction."

* * *

It was past ten minutes into the stability test, and still there was no sign of anything significant. Deciding that talking to Asuka would make things interesting, Shinji walked over to Maya, who was manning her workstation, and asked, "Can I talk to Asuka in private?"

Maya nodded. "Sure, no problem," she said, handing to him her headset before getting off the seat. "Just press the blue key to go into private mode, and the red key to talk."

"Okay, thank you," Shinji said, smiling while sitting down as Maya walked away towards Natsumi, who was watching over Asuka's vital signs. The young man then took a breath, looked up to the camera above the monitor, and pressed the keys. By using private mode, the workstation can talk to the Entry Plug exclusively, and shutting out all other eavesdroppers.

"What's up?" Asuka said, looking back at him through the monitor via video feed.

"Thought I like to talk… Just anything," Shinji said. "Got an idea?"

"Sometimes, I realize you were no different… No, you were almost like Kaji," she remarked.

"Why?"

"'Cause I felt that back then, when he's together with Misato, he was everything in a man. He, I admit, kinda the right man for her. Nothing else."

Asuka chuckled, a quick thought popped into her brain. "I remember about that lavender perfume I used, the one Misato had worn. He came home with her, and he smelled of that perfume."

"Oh, I remember," Shinji answered. "The night we tried to kiss."

"Yeah. I was then fooling you, saying we needed to kill time."

Shinji smirked. "Funny, I felt embarrassed throughout that minute."

"Well, I thought I was doing it right. Must be me minding too much to expect from you."

The young man sighed. "It's been strange that you shouted at me as if you kicked me in the ass."

Asuka blinked. "What?"

"Back at the car, I mean. I… I was then scared like hell, and I wasn't sure what to do."

"You panicked, that's why," Asuka added.

"I've been used to being frightened for too long," he admitted. "But I remembered about you almost having your head cut off back when the Angel came down and nearly erased Headquarters off the face of the earth. That really scared me, of you and Ayanami being hurt."

Shinji sighed. "It's thankful that you did put sense in me, because sometimes I seem to forget what Kaworu told me, saying that I have to live with the pain."

Asuka pursed her lips for a second and said, "I have a feeling that our comfort days are coming to an end. That's what I'm afraid of, but… As I wanted to be back, this time I don't mind a bit of pain. Pain to counter some of the comfort, to have some sort of a balance, an equilibrium, you know from science classes, about the laws of physics."

Shinji nodded. "Uh, huh."

"Okay, let's just say that you won a ticket to stay in Tahiti for a year," Asuka spoke, warming up to the intellectual equivalent of the deep end of the pool.

"Yeah," Shinji answered, visualizing himself as a stick-figure drawing waving a ticket, jumping for joy.

"Everything's provided for, all expenses paid and tax-free. No work or even house chores required; all you need is to relax and enjoy yourself, yet the catch is that you're not allowed to leave," Asuka said.

"I see. Sounds good."

"The first day on the beach, you feel really lucky, lapping the sun, drinks by your side, servants at your beck and call, and parties at night. That day stretches to a week, same thing each day, then a month, until you reach at the end of your stay. By that time, how do you feel then?"

"Bored. I can't do something what I really liked," Shinji answered, his stick-figure yawning out of boredom, sitting on the beach. "There's no choice, and I can't make my choices, right?"

"Absolutely. It's the same thing if you get caged in a prison, you know, the variety where you're with hardened murderers, swindlers and rapists; you're literally in hell for a year. That's pain, and there you don't have any choices either."

This time the stick-figure was behind bars, screaming and crying. Cringing at that vision, Shinji mentally used an imaginary eraser to take away the bars, and the stick-figure felt relieved, having understood why.

"So, what you're saying is that too much pain or pleasure isn't good, huh?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah. There's always this duality going on in this universe," Asuka answered. "One to counter the other. Equilibrium to stabilize everything, yet without this universal duality we'll never exist. Good and evil; dark and light; heaven and hell; angels and demons; and heat and cold, and so on. Come to think of it, one can't live without the other."

Shinji blinked. "Uh, wait a second, where did you learn all that, because they sound a bit deep?"

Asuka sighed. "Some symposium back in college, and I was invited there, thinking it would be useful to add yet another factoid in my head. It's only now that even though I forgot his name, I was able remember what the lecturer said about duality back there. Anyway, we're really meant for each other, one to counter the other. Girl and boy. You and me. Equilibrium." The girl chuckled softly.

"Thanks for clearing things up for me," Shinji said. "Sometimes I feel a bit dumb."

"By the way," Asuka said. "What's up with the Wondergirl, 'cause a few minutes ago I saw her hold hands with Kaworu," she mentioned, pointing out at Rei, who was seated, silently reading a copy of _National Geographic_ magazine while waiting for Kaworu_._

"Oh," Shinji blurted, before he leaned close to the camera. "They're in love now," he whispered.

Surprised, Asuka almost leapt off her seat. "_What?_" she exclaimed.

* * *

Halfway reading an article on whales, Rei suddenly sneezed, nearly causing her to drop the magazine. Acting on instinct, Rei sniffed twice and touched her nose, before she whispered, "They must be talking about me."

Resuming her reading, Rei concentrated at one of the underwater photos on the page; they looked like the ones she swam with in her dream. She read off the caption: sperm whales.

_What the whales I dreamed of does it mean to me? I do not know the answer yet._

Instead she glanced up at Unit-02 right outside the control room, those four eyes of the crimson behemoth staring back, and then she wandered her gaze at Shinji, probably talking to Asuka.

And the boy was up on his feet, and was walking towards her. Shinji then asked, "Would you like to talk to Asuka?"

Rei set the magazine, setting it on top of the console and said, "Yes."

Shinji smiled. "Come on," he said.

The girl rose from her seat and they walked back to the workstation. With Shinji guiding her on how to use the communications gear, Rei sat down, wore the headset, pressed a few keys and glanced at Asuka on the monitor. The Second Children was in smiles, looking back at her.

"I should congratulate you," Asuka said, speaking through the headset. "For thawing out," she added in jest.

"What do you mean?" Rei asked, while Shinji sat on a vacant chair and watched the opening conversation between the girls.

"I'm gonna like you this time. You're so open now, not unlike the last time, and thawing out means you're opening up… Okay, Shinji said you fell in love with Kaworu. Is that true?"

Rei nodded. "Yes. I have understood his intentions for me. He explained everything before we kissed."

Asuka cooed in admiration. "Awwwww… FIRST LOVE!" she exclaimed. "Just what he said to you?"

Blushing, the First Children picked her words carefully before she spoke. "He said that I was like a rose, delicate and beautiful. I… I never heard someone say words like that to me before."

"You're a lucky girl, Wonder—I mean, Rei," Asuka answered, now using the other girl's first name to get more personal and respectful. "Your new boyfriend, I daresay, may sound old-fashioned, but I think only a handful of men are just like him. Kaworu's a rarity, you know, as if he belonged to another place and time."

"I see," Rei said. "What does the word 'boyfriend' means?"

Asuka chuckled. "Okay… It simply means your lover, your opposite, and perhaps… Your future husband," she replied.

"Husband?"

"When you get married afterwards," Asuka said, "that's what he'll be referred to, and you'll be the wife, and oh, if you ever get to beget _children_, you'll be considered as a _mother_."

Rei blinked this time, the word _mother _causing a flashback to an afternoon, back to the elevator where she was then talking to Shinji:

_"When we were cleaning the classroom today," he recalled, "you were wringing out the rag, remember? The way you did it… Well, just like the way a mother does."_

_Rei had a double-take. "A mother?"_

_Shinji smiled. "I thought it was like a mother does. Maybe you'd be really good at being a housewife, Ayanami," he said before bursting into laughter._

_Rei's composure broke, and she questioned as if offended, "What are you saying?"_

_The girl's reaction caused Shinji to pause, and he said, "Sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you, but that's how I think about the way you did it back there."_

"_I could not understand why you have to laugh at me about it," Rei replied, unable to see the humor in Shinji's commentary._

_Shinji sighed. "I wished you should have at least a sense of humor," he said. "The only time I saw you smile was back there at that mountain, yet I don't know when you could laugh."_

_The First Children bowed her head, remembering their midnight sortie at Mount Futagoyama. "I am not trained to laugh," she admitted sadly. "The Commander does not laugh."_

"_Why?" Shinji asked, frowning a bit._

"_I could not be happy unlike you."_

Rei was suddenly roused out of her brief reverie when Asuka snapped her fingers, despite being deep in LCL, as though doing it right in front of her face. "Cat got your tongue, Rei?" she asked.

"Pardon me?" Rei answered, blinking again.

Asuka giggled, patiently yet humorously having to put up with Rei's inability to understand some idioms. "I mean, you looked as if something kept you from talking. It's an idiom."

"I see," Rei said. "I am sorry; I remembered what Ikari said to me before because you said the word _mother_."

The redhead wistfully smiled. "It's all right; you're starting to learn a lot of things from me, and to have your vocabulary widened, Rei. Anyway… I couldn't imagine how it'll be like if your relationship lasts longer, but if in case you get married someday, I'm willing to become your bridesmaid… and mark my words, no kidding, I'll do that for you."

"For me?"

This time Asuka sighed in pleasure, and she was enjoying the exchange between them. "Look," she said. "As you've saved me from that big freaking bird in the sky, from having that thing almost close to frying my brain, I owe you much for that, and so I want to be your bridesmaid someday. That's a highest honor a bride could get for having a best friend, and… All right, let's get back to Kaworu, and through him, I think you can learn how to be a real person."

Rei blinked. "I could do that?"

"Of course, you have potential to understand," Asuka said. "I mean, you're like an empty chalkboard or a blank piece of paper, a plain canvas or a chunk of clay, waiting for an artist to create something beautiful out of it by sketching, painting or sculpting… and that artist is Kaworu, and then all the sudden you come out with some sense and... You're bringing out your heart into the open."

The First Children nodded in agreement. "I see…"

"There's something else I noticed about Kaworu, though," Asuka said. "He reminds me about this character from a book I read sometimes ago; he's like Edward Cullen, from _Twilight_, and he's a mysterious guy."

"I have never read that book," Rei admitted.

"Well," Asuka said, "perhaps later we'll see if _Twilight_'s in the NERV library, and maybe the rest of the whole saga, and then we could borrow all four books and then read them together in your spare time, and only then you could get the idea of what I mean."

Rei nodded. "That would be acceptable… But why call him mysterious?"

"Because I don't know much about Kaworu, so I'm interested in asking him a few questions, like what he really is and where he came from. But since you have probably known him intimately, is it okay if you could tell me more about Kaworu?"

This time Rei was in a quandary; she and Kaworu made a solemn pledge not to tell the secret of his origins, employers and true Angelic identity.

"I could not answer that," Rei confessed after a while.

Asuka frowned. "Why not?"

"It is a secret we share, we promised ourselves not to tell anyone, and we must honor that promise," Rei answered.

"Aw," Asuka grumbled as if hurt. "Sounds just like in the book, a secret forbidden affair between a mortal girl and a vampire boy, and they vowed not to tell the world about it, not even to the girl's dad, and of course vampires hate to see their secrets exposed."

"That is exactly what Kaworu and I are doing," Rei said, immediately seeing parallels between that and her relationship with Kaworu, and then she looked around as though wary of potential eavesdroppers. "I do not wish the Commander to know we are in love," she added.

Asuka nodded, and made a 'quiet' gesture with a forefinger touching her lips. "All right, I promise you we'll keep this conversation confidential," she avowed, using the same forefinger to make a cross over her heart. "Agree?"

Rei smiled softly. "I agree, Pilot Soryu," she replied.

A thought crossed Asuka's mind, and then she said, "One more thing, and I forgot to mention this."

"What is it?" Rei wondered.

"Do you remember what you said about opening my heart to Eva?"

Rei nodded. "Yes, I know that."

Asuka gave her a grin. "Well… You were darned right in saying so," she spoke, tapping her hand on one of the controls. "Therefore I should treat you for a free lunch after this, and so… what do you wish to have for lunch?"

"Garlic noodles with dumplings," Rei said; it was probably the only supreme gourmet meal she really liked.

"…And _Kaworu_ for dessert, maybe?" Asuka quipped, before bursting into laughter; briefly she enjoyed a seemingly delicious imagining of Rei going down to bed with Kaworu after lunch.

But Rei looked surprised, with eyes blinking. "What did you say?"

The redhead repeatedly shook her head, still chortling. "No, no, no… Sorry, Rei, don't get mad… I'm just _joking_!" she pleaded.

* * *

Spotting an empty chair, Misato pulled it towards her and sat down on it, before she asked, "This is becoming serious. Why you should betray him?"

Kaworu remained standing. "I don't want to give Shinji undue pain, but I'm supposed to die in the hands of Unit One, as a sacrifice. That I'm preordained to be so, as the prophecies in the Scrolls say."

The woman blinked. "Scrolls? What sort of scrolls have to do with this?"

"The Secret Dead Sea Scrolls are the basis for what's happening here. It's more of a plan than a prophecy; my predecessors are already dead, slain by the Evas, confirming the entries in those Scrolls. As _Tabris_, which is really my name, I'm the seventeenth, and the _last_ of my kind, to serve as a sacrificial lamb."

Misato was astonished. "Those Scrolls do exist? Really?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, and as they're called 'Secret', they're separate from the other Dead Sea Scrolls that are for study in Israel today. Anyway, the Chairman personally showed the Scrolls to me a week before I came here, just to give me an idea of what I was meant to do… Now, going back to Shinji, I understood what's wrong with him. I learned about his past, the pain he was going through, the doubts he carried, and the fact he's in odds with his father."

"What did you know about him?"

Kaworu took a breath. "I have now understood why he didn't want to be a Pilot," he said. "Why he didn't like his father and blame him for his suffering and the loss of his mother, and why he tried to run away. He sought for escape from the pain, to come back to his comfortable old life, yet there's no other place for him to go, except here and now. He also came close to losing most of his friends and people close to him. Above all, before I met him, he always hated himself; his lack of self-worth and courage was so appalling that it's no wonder that most people rejected him, and others beat him up."

Misato couldn't believe it. "How did you manage to obtain all that?"

"Because I have this power, and I discovered it by accident. I have the ability to read people's minds by physical contact."

"How?"

"Let me take your hidden side as an example," Kaworu began. "In your case, I have learned why you despise your dead father, because he's responsible for your broken family in your past, for he'd been too obsessed with his work, so you called him the most selfish man in the world, but then your feelings about him were torn up after he saved you from being killed in Second Impact; you also had a hard time with Kaji in an on-and-off relationship, thinking he's like your father, until his death, and yet you couldn't get over it. At the same time, you're searching for the truth, and maybe you wanted to end it on your own terms. Sometimes you feel guilty for failing the Children as a guardian. On top of it, alcohol is where you lose yourself, trying to erase the trauma. _In vino veritas._"

Misato was totally shocked, a cold chill running through her veins; she felt as if she was stripped naked. "H… How did you do that? I mean… you read my mind like a book."

"Whenever I have _physical contact_ with any person for the first time," Kaworu explained, "I get this... psychic rush as if I could access their memories. I can see anyone's past through their senses. I discovered this part of me as I met Shinji for the first time, and so I was able to understand his pain and suffering, joy and pleasure. Besides him, and through that ability, I was also able to comprehend the problems that Asuka and Rei faced, which they struggled to resolve."

This time the woman heaved a relieved sigh, and then she asked, "What understanding have you gained from them? How did you help the girls?"

"Asuka's biggest problem is her past and her mother's suicide," Kaworu said, "and instead of coming to terms with the pain it generated, she tried to cover it up by creating an outward personality for people to see, to make them think she's above them; she also repeatedly tried to convince people that she's mature, when in fact all that posturing only made her sound immature.

"Once I made physical contact, the first thing I did was to talk to her about it, try to change for the good, and make peace with her past and inner demons."

Kaworu combed his hair with a free hand, and continued. "As for Rei… She had this inferiority complex, a feeling she's expendable, as if she wished to die. Ever since she blew up Unit Zero she couldn't remember, she had this self-doubt, questioning the importance of her purpose to the Commander, and with those, she possessed this fear that she couldn't continue the relationships she had with others, especially with Shinji.

"But after Unit One rejected her, and somehow she had her memories back, all the sudden she wanted to live, and so I helped her try to understand her problems and resolve them, especially her self-worth."

"And what about me?"

"You're at a mature age and time," Kaworu said, "in which it's really up to you to let go of yesterday's pain, and be stronger. You're still a good woman to me."

Misato nodded. "Yeah, but I did my best being a better person. Didn't think much of the past now, except maybe the good times. Yet even then the past comes back with a vengeance, and I still have to wrestle with them. But still… Did you learn something worthwhile in making us look into our hearts?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"I don't want to be a mere observer of pain and suffering; I don't want to be too selfish, and instead I gave myself, counseling them to recoup their will, give them encouragement and a will to live… But I'm really preparing them for a contingency," Kaworu said, before he leaned close to Misato and added, "Whether we want it or not, Instrumentality is coming."

* * *

In her lab, with her iPod plugged onto the Bose speaker set, softly playing songs from Sheryl Crow, and while she was transmitting more of Oda's data from the hard drive to Hamamoto's computer over NERV's intranet, Ritsuko stared once more at the old picture on her laptop; in the ten-plus-years-old picture, she was present with her mother, another one of her mother's colleagues, and Gendo; the adults all wearing lab coats while Ritsuko donned a school uniform: beige coat and skirt, a white shirt and a black bow.

In the picture, while her mother smiled, and Gendo stared at the camera as if he was about to blow out its lenses with his piercing eyes, Ritsuko looked gloomy and uncomfortable. Of course, with the dark chestnut brown hair matching her mother's, Ritsuko then looked too homely in that picture, and her lanky physical appearance sometimes made her a subject of countless taunts back in high school, the girls calling her a wallflower behind her back.

A bit disgusted of her former ugly-duckling self, Ritsuko promptly closed the picture and then thought of accessing her old, web-based account at Google Mail, which she logged in periodically to keep it alive and checking the inbox. So far, unlike her current NERV email account, this one received little now, the most recent message dated about six years ago. She owned this account ever since she started studying at college, used it to keep in touch with her mother, then working for Gehirn, on a nightly basis.

Now, with the laptop connected to the Internet, Ritsuko entered the Google Mail website and logged in with her username and password, then went to find some older correspondence with her mother, and opened each of them:

To: Akagi Naoko  
From: Akagi Ritsuko  
Subject: New friend  
_Mom, the other day, I happened to meet a girl named Katsuragi, and people always do stare at me from a distance, because they know I'm your daughter. It forces me to remember that your name is very important. Well, as far as Misato's concerned (that's her name), she's different. She's really honest, even with me. I heard that she's the only survivor left from her late father's Investigation Commission. It seems that she was aphasic before… I mean, unable to speak well. But now she's quite talkative, just like she's trying to make up for those aphasic days. Anyway, if you want to see what she looks like, here's a picture of me with her. OBTW Sorry Mom, I changed the color of my hair. I look better with platinum blonde.  
_Attachment (1): DSC002912 (jpg)

To: Akagi Ritsuko  
From: Akagi Naoko  
Subject: 1000 meters below_  
Rit-chan, I'm sorry but I'm always underground, working down here with my development team, especially on the new supercomputer. As I've already signed the NDA, however, I can't tell you much about the details or even the name of this project. But I'm getting sick of buying box lunches, and I really miss eating out at a real ramen stand. And you don't want to get lost here, either, as it's like a maze; you'll have to carry a map if you want to go around or find a WC (water closet = public toilet) somewhere.__ Aboveground, though, the construction of Tokyo-3 has started, as a result of the government's plan to move the capital for the second time, even if they haven't thought of providing some place for those dumb politicians just like the old Diet building back before the Impact… which is a good thing._

To: Akagi Naoko  
From: Akagi Ritsuko  
Subject: Good grief!  
_For a couple of days, Misato was absent from school, and I forced her to tell me why. She's such a horny idiot! Turned out she was having serious sex with her boyfriend at her apartment, without getting tired… for a WHOLE WEEK! Imagine that! Yet however, even if I have to put up with her manners, I was still impressed to hear about that other side of her. __Today, while at lunch she introduced me to the guy. His name's Ryoji Kaji and he's studying philosophy, but he prefers to be called by his family name. He's handsome, but I'm not used to his playfulness. Check out my phone pic on him, he's very much of a slacker:  
_Attachment (1): DSC003005 (jpg)

To: Akagi Ritsuko  
From: Akagi Naoko  
Subject: Sorry  
_You've been too afraid of boys for a long time, Rit-chan. That's because I'm the only one trying to raise you. I'm so sorry; I've always let you do as you wanted… I'm terrible, and I'm your mother only when I wish to be. I don't want to think too much about your father._

To: Akagi Ritsuko  
From: Akagi Naoko  
Subject: Bad day_  
"You said today's important, so I want to show the promising future to my son." Those were the last words I heard from Yui-san, before a freak accident during the first contact experiment erased her from this world... Just as I had mistakenly wished, and so I feel disgusted about myself.__ After that day, however, Chief Ikari completely changed. He left after the brief funeral for her, and been absent for two days till now. Either he's arranging some of her papers or probably gone on drinking, just like most brokenhearted widowers, but I'll never know and I don't even know much about him. He's still an unknown quantity._

To: Akagi Naoko  
From: Akagi Ritsuko  
Subject: Congratulations!  
_Mom, congratulations on completing the basic theory of the MAGI trinary system. However, I have some good news to congratulate you with: I received the employment notice in the mail, and they said that I will officially join Gehirn next week, and by next month, I'll also be assigned to Project E. I hope I made you proud this time. Looking forward to working alongside you._

Ritsuko sighed as she logged off her Google account, and pondered about her past actions. She wondered why she blindly fell for Gendo, even as that man was probably responsible for her mother's death.

It was his _eyes_ that changed her mind, those eyes behind his amber-tinted glasses. They can turn soft if he wished, to gain sympathy or to bring down the resistance of anyone who spoke to him. Perhaps it's no wonder he can easily negotiate with difficult men, or cunningly manipulate people to his will, make them do anything at his bidding.

However, his eyes can also become freezing-cold if angered, terrorizing the weak-willed and anyone who dared to be standing in his way, without even raising a voice. Ritsuko sometimes heard rumors from lower-ranked personnel, of Gendo's behavior, and how they tried to put up with his eccentricities; depending on someone's opinion, and only when he's not around, either they called him a messianic visionary or a flaming bastard.

Suddenly Ritsuko realized that he could enter her lab without warning, and maybe hurt her, so out of fear she stood up and went to the door, hung a "Don't Disturb" sign and locked it, before going back to her seat. She then lit up another cigarette and pulled a drag.

"Sonofabitch," she cursed Gendo, as a whitish cloud of spent tobacco formed around her. "I shouldn't have let you touch me in the first place."

* * *

"I heard the words 'Instrumentality' or 'Complementation' many times," Misato said. "Some call it a new age for humanity, others a second renaissance… Yet because it's too vague, exactly what the hell it actually means?"

Kaworu sighed. "Maybe I'll enlighten you on that, but I'm afraid you may not like the possibilities Instrumentality may bring upon the Lilim."

Misato nodded. "Okay, I'll listen... What's Instrumentality is all about?"

As Kaworu explained, the Human Instrumentality Project was a plan aimed at divinity, and the Evas were considered absolutely essential to the Project; as copies of Adam, the being closest to a god, the Evas were the sole keys that could open the Path to God.

However, being an incomplete creation, humanity possessed this void, and the Committee believed that they could use Eva to fill in this gap, and to make man into a God through apotheosis, or at least into an eternal existence.

"There's a problem, though," Misato said. "Who's going to benefit from Instrumentality? Us… or the Committee?"

"I fear that the Committee demands it," Kaworu said. "They feel humanity has reached a point where mankind has become corrupt, redemption is impossible, and thus Instrumentality is their only way to accomplish purity and atonement, and to become one entity."

Misato blinked. "A world… _without sin_," she whispered, remembering that phrase she heard from the movie _Serenity_.

"Exactly. That's what they wanted."

"Damn," Misato cursed, shaking her head. "But there's something I wanted to tell you, now that I'm sure we could keep this all a secret to ourselves."

"What is it?" Kaworu responded.

"Why there are _two _Adams?" she questioned.

Kaworu frowned a bit. "Two?"

"Yes, there are two," Misato said, nodding. "One I've seen at the bottom of the Geofront sometimes ago… and the other sketched out by our doctor friend. You know, Doctor Odani."

"No, it's impossible. There's only _one_ Adam."

Misato looked puzzled. "And what's the other, then?"

"The other is named Lilith."

"Lilith?"

"Yes. They maybe look one and the same, but they're fundamentally different. But they're only one-half of themselves, as each of them doesn't have souls of their own. Only when they have a soul do they become fully awaken."

"And where are those souls?"

"I carry the soul of Adam… and Rei possesses the soul of Lilith."

Once more Misato was dumbstruck, mouth agape.

"That's right," Kaworu confirmed. "But… Who's in control of Adam?"

"Damn, I should've told you this: according to Doctor Odani, the Commander owns Adam, as she operated on his hand some nights ago."

"I didn't know that," Kaworu said.

Misato nodded. "Yes, but we don't really know what he's going to do with it."

"There's only one way: he could use it for Instrumentality," Kaworu answered.

The woman's eyes bulged. "WHAT?"

"You may not really like to hear this first part of Instrumentality, but since we are only vessels for their souls, and we're also made from their genetic material, if either of us makes _physical _contact with either Lilith or Adam, then Instrumentality begins: their souls, bottled in me and Rei and then released, would be fused with their bodies, and it doesn't matter whether it's Adam's soul and Lilith's body, or vice-versa, or in combination, as long as a _body_ receives a _soul_, not body-to-body nor soul-to-soul."

The woman swallowed hard, trying to imagine the process. "And what happens?"

"There will be a reversal of the AT-Field that binds the physical forms of _all_ creatures made from Lilith… Or Adam; whether they're plants or animals, bacterium or Lilim, without the AT-Field they will be broken down and liquefied into LCL. There's no escape, no choice given, and all will be returned to the first form of life."

"Which is called primordial soup," Misato said, but Kaworu's description of the process was already chilling her veins.

"Yes," Kaworu confirmed. "And as you have told me, a world without sin... and that disintegration's the second and last part."

Misato frowned and she said, "Now what are we going to do, kidnap the Commander and try to pry Adam off him? Impossible. Short of being suicidal, there's _no way_ anyone with hostile intent could hope to get near, and whenever he goes out, he always has armed bodyguards and they're trained to shoot to kill… As if that wasn't worrying enough, the Commander himself packs a gun and knows how to shoot; on occasions I've seen him practice down at the gun range."

Kaworu now looked desperate, as he pondered over the dilemma, trying to find a way as Misato watched him.

"I have a plan, and I worked on it last night," he said, breaking the uneasy silence.

"But what plan?" Misato asked, looking doubtful.

"I want them to see what they're expecting to witness. To see is to believe, isn't it?"

"Right," Misato nodded, "and how do you want it to work?"

The next few minutes Misato listened to Kaworu, as he explained the scheme in detail. In theory it was elegant and ingenious, and thus the woman was reminded much of the movie _Ocean's Eleven _and its plot_, _but to make his complex plan work would be daunting.

"Do you think it's going to fly?" Misato asked, completely skeptical afterwards. She glanced at her watch, and there were only a few minutes left before Unit-02's stability test concludes.

"It maybe a long shot, but I want it that way," Kaworu answered. "As long we don't tell them about this plan," he added, referring to the other Children.

"What if your crazy plan _fails_?" Misato asked.

"Then it's my fault and I'll accept the consequences should that happens," Kaworu said. "I'm not just doing it for myself; I'm doing this for the rest of us, all because she wants to live."

Misato shook her head, and sighed. "You know, there's a phrase for what you're doing."

"What's that?"

"Love conquers all."

"Ah. _Omnia vincit amor_," Kaworu said, translating it into Latin. "I know that. Virgil by way of Chaucer, yet there's more to that line than you think."

Misato was impressed. "Didn't know it's been around for a very long time."

"Yes," Kaworu said. "Anyway, my guardian, insisting that I should have a backbone in humanities, gave me a tutor in literature, who taught me everything on it from Greek to English, to American and European, and even Japanese, from folklore to modern.

"Now if a civilization is to be judged, it shouldn't be measured in terms of power, wealth and weaponry, but its high culture, especially its languages, songs, dances, music, paintings, stories, and poems... all forms of art."

"You remind me of my humanities professor back in college," Misato recalled. "He once used to bring the house down with one of his lectures on Shakespeare."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Kaworu said, smiling.

Misato sighed, and asked, this time looking serious. "Can you foresee how this will all end? I mean, after all the Angels, including you?"

"It's not easy to look into the future, and even I admit that the Scrolls may _not be absolute_ as they claim. On the contrary, as with other prophecies, they can't be considered unbreakable nor the future is carved in stone. In fact, even though it's impossible to stop events from happening, we could at least change the trajectory or the way where it's actually going."

"So in other words it's hard to predict?"

Kaworu nodded. "Yes. What occurs tomorrow will depend on what happens today. Cause and effect."

"Another good reason why I can no longer trust beauty-magazine horoscopes," Misato muttered. "My birth sign gives me a sucky fortune. In any case, even with your scheme, it'll take some luck to make that happen."

"You could be right," Kaworu agreed. "But anyway… Do you trust me this time now?"

At that point Misato was on a quandary; on one hand Kaworu was a potential enemy, and naturally she would question everything he said, as they could be some form of disinformation; on the other, Kaworu clearly reversed his position, his original purpose, and he'd already given her some rather shocking first-hand information, gold-nugget information which Kaji may have withheld or unable to obtain, and which Misato was going after to resolve Kaji's postmortem equivalent of "Fermat's Last Theorem".

Misato finally nodded and said, "I trust you this time. It's a deal."

"Thanks," Kaworu responded, before she offered her hand for a handshake, Kaworu took hers and with the gesture it was a closed deal. As their hands made contact at the same time, the young man felt the flow of her memories coming into his mind, and through her senses he saw the events that took place in the last few days, ever since the first time they had physical contact.

Once they let go of their hands, without warning Kaworu felt his nose quivering and he sneezed. Instinctively Misato covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Bless you," Misato whispered.

"Sorry," Kaworu apologized while repeatedly sniffing. "I think they're probably talking about me by now."

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** This chapter was mad to write! I was close to having a case of a block on this one, making revisions, trying to shuffle around the dialogue, thinking about the words they were about to say and more... and throughout this night and morning this time I'm glad to get my flow back with a shot of coffee and cheap Fortunes (laughs).

Anyway, in this chapter, Misato finally gets her chance from Kaworu, Ritsuko does a retrospect, and the private girl-talk between our heroines (this part amused me as I wrote it, and reminds me of that other little girl-talk between Asuka and Hikari in Episode 18).

Gotta take a bath for now; and perhaps within two days I'll upload this chapter for you readers. Much thanks for your patronage! (grins)

**Addendum:** It has come to my attention that some readers noted a discrepancy I made throughout this story (starting at Chapter 19), such as in the case of Kaworu and Rei designated as physical "vessels" for the souls of Adam and Lilith respectively. To quote Brendan Jamieson and others from the **EvaOtaku** FAQ:

_Kaworu is a cloned body (albino - pale skin/hair, red eyes) with the soul of a Source of Life (Adam); Rei is a cloned body (albino - pale skin/hair, red eyes) with the soul of a Source of Life (Lilith)._

And quoting the _Classified Information_ dossiers (from the Eva 2 game, the English translation housed at **EvaGeeks**' Wiki):

_Lilith had no soul. Moreover, _its soul has been residing within Rei_. Many copies of Rei's body were made, but that is the reason why only one of Rei herself can exist at any given time. Even though Rei was copied from Yui's flesh, this was not the case for her soul._

Ergo, Kaworu and Rei have _one_ _soul _and _one body._

However, in my own interpretation (inspired by an extract from Goethe's _Faust_ - _"Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast." _– see Chapter 1), I thought that because they're "vessels", Kaworu and Rei possessed _two_ souls – _one_ for their _own personalities_, and the _other_ for the dormant Adam and Lilith correspondingly.

I would therefore like to apologize to everyone for this personal digression (as well as some other liberties, inventions and simplifications – such is the nature of fanfiction writing), and hope that I have enlightened you all with this addendum. Thank you.


	26. Negotiation, Part 2

_From his hiding place in the shadows, Sanderson laid there waiting, gripping his suppressed 9mm Walther pistol, locked and loaded. His eyes darted quickly, wary of anyone about to walk into his field of sight, and his ears were alert, prepared for hear even a snippet of noise, shuffling of feet, voices, and breaths, but all he could hear was his heartbeat and the rhythm of his breathing._

_In his mind, he also learned much about her face, and what things she did, and memorized the girl's whole biography. He knew her mother was dead, her father was living with a second wife, and she lived a difficult existence._

_Days ago she was supposed to be out of the game, shipped back to where she came from, rendered helpless by the sedatives that put her down. But that was changed, however, as the powers-that-be at NERV first removed the IV drip lines, then gave her a clean bill of health, and just as she was about to leave Tokyo-3, Oda launched an assault against her twice and failed, the killer ultimately paying the price by committing suicide._

_Now, as his bosses had desperately wanted, Sanderson was here, ready to pounce… and the opportunity he was waiting for was walking towards his position; he could hear the laughter coming from her, whilst her companions were talking. The noise made him ready the gun, knowing where to shoot and he'd been trained to do it at twice or even thrice the speed._

_And he swung around the corner and peered through the sights of his pistol, before he pulled the trigger twice at the incoming Second Section agent, and that man's forehead suddenly had a bloody hole and a stain right over his heart; the other agent, caught unawares, pulled out his gun but was too late, as two more rounds bored into the second man's chest, crimson blossoming over his cotton shirt._

_As the men fell, the others scattered, but not for long, as he caught her in his sights before she could take shelter, and he fired thrice; two hollowpoint slugs instantly demolished her heart and lungs, and as the coup-de-grace, the last slug punched through the girl's skull and exited from the back, leaving a gaping baseball-sized maw where her gray matter used to be—_

Sanderson blinked twice, and shook his head, realizing he lulled himself into a daydream of his planned assassination of his intended target: Asuka Langley Soryu. Nursing a can of coffee in his hands, he was sitting on a bench in one of the vending machine rooms, about fifty meters away from the Test Facility. He then puffed before he quickly checked his concealed weapons, ready to be pulled out when needed at even a fraction of a second.

Satisfied, he nodded and told himself, _It's all for Instrumentality, as long as I don't screw this up first._

But then he heard footsteps from outside, in the hallway, and he watched as Misato and Kaworu walked past him, with no words exchanged between them.

_It's him,_ he thought. _What he's doing with that broad? What they're up to?_

Sanderson knew that he should keep tabs on the Fifth Children, and already Director Hamamoto earlier briefed him and some agents to conduct a surveillance operation at the Commander's request. He thus now had the license to shadow Kaworu in any way possible, and at the same time satisfy the requirements given by the Chairman.

In this case, it was becoming clear to Sanderson that Kaworu wasn't doing his job.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 26: NEGOTIATION PART II  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 8/4/2010 21:50 a8/p8

* * *

"You know, there's an engraving inspired by that line," Kaworu said as he and Misato walked, referring to the words _love conquers all_. "It was made by Agostino Carracci, after I went around the Internet last night, finding anything connected to that quote."

"I haven't seen that before, so what does it looks like?" Misato asked.

Kaworu described the engraving, in which two seemingly frightened young nude women were observing a baby boy striking blows at a much bigger, burly satyr, going down on his knees. He also added that the boy was named Love.

The woman blinked. "That's odd, but why?"

"The problem is that he's not supposed to be on your flank. You fight with him, try to undo the damage he does to others. Unfortunately, he's too powerful and haughty, and according to Virgil, no matter how much we suffer, our sufferings cannot move him."

Misato looked up briefly, recalling Shinji's personal quagmire. "Sounds like the Man," she said, referring to Commander Ikari as she pointed upward.

"Right," Kaworu agreed. "In the same sense, Shinji tried everything he could, he went through every crucible, and yet his father doesn't seem to care at all..."

The woman sighed, and said, "God knows what's going on with that man's mind, but he's beyond caring."

"What kind of father who has little regard for his son?" Kaworu questioned. "And by extension, to all others?"

"That's what my father used to do," Misato said. "Being selfish, he's bent on achieving a single goal, and sacrificed everything, including relationships, and in the process he wrecked my family. Well, I haven't told you this but before my mom divorced him, and later his death, he was obsessed with the Super Solenoid Theory, where energy could be generated infinitely."

From some tidbits she heard, recalling from memories of her father then restlessly pacing around his small and cluttered office, the man loudly reciting his ideas, Misato outlined the basic principle of the S2 Engine, which created helical energy as a perpetual motion machine, in the same way galaxies and stars are kept alive, by mean of vortices, and without consuming fuel. The problem was that her father's theory was repeatedly criticized by some circles supporting the use of existing and fusion-based energy sources, yet despite denigration he managed to cobble funding into this line of research, and eventually found a mysterious sponsor with more money to support his investigation down at Antarctica.

"…but unfortunately, that was his undoing as he opened Pandora's Box right there," she said.

"What happened then?"

Misato shrugged. "When I was finally able to recover myself from the trauma, I demanded answers from the UN, but instead all they gave me was their official bullshit explanation of a meteor impact, even though I was the only survivor then. I pressed further, but dissuaded, accusing me of being a charlatan and loose in the head because of post-traumatic stress syndrome… Goddamn bastards."

"So… You're here now because you wanted to rid of your father's malediction, right?" Kaworu said.

Misato nodded. "That's what I'm still doing, and yes, I told people the line that I joined NERV out of revenge, in my belief that Angels were responsible for my father's death."

"Do you still care about him?"

"I don't know," Misato said as she tweaked the crucifix on her chest, "and I can't say much, but I'm torn up in half whenever I hear that kind of question. So sometimes I asked myself whether I loved or hated him, and it's hard to give a definite answer."

Kaworu sighed. "Letting go might as well be a better solution."

"I'm doing that," Misato replied. "I want to live the day I look forward instead; I want to be surrounded by people who have in common with my own feelings, I don't want to be a prisoner of the past, of delusions… and I don't want to run away this time."

"That's a lot to wish for."

"Sure is… But if necessary, I'll go down fighting."

* * *

Just ahead of them, and in the control room, Asuka was apologizing to Rei, as the First Children stared back at her opposite number right on the comlink screen.

"No, no, no… Sorry, Rei, don't get mad… I'm just _joking_!" Asuka said, trying to tone down her laughter.

"I do not understand why you think Nagisa is a _dessert_," Rei replied while adjusting her headset.

"Okay, okay, I'll make it clear to you: figuratively speaking, he's delicious in some ways, and since you're lucky to have him as company, it should be your pleasure to spend more time with him."

"He promised to teach me how to play the violin," Rei said. "In his room I saw that he has a violin of his own."

Asuka nodded. "Ah, I don't know that… but that's good for you."

At the mere mention of that line, Rei suddenly blinked, her mind making a flashback.

_Lying on the hospital bed, Shinji looked tired, his eyes almost in a daze after he spent about 18 hours in the Entry Plug, trapped in an Angelic abyss before Unit-01 broke out of the creature's "shadow". He was trying to focus, gazing back at Rei's eyes, before he yawned._

"_You may just rest for today," Rei said, standing above him while holding a booklet. "We will do everything for you."_

_Shinji repeatedly blinked his eyes till able to keep them wide, and then he groaned. "But I'm just all right now," he said._

"_Well, that is good for you," Rei answered, made a faint smile before pivoting, and she left the room, leaving Shinji nearly flabbergasted. _

"That was _my_ line," the First Children remarked.

"What do you mean?" Asuka questioned.

"The one you said 'that is good for you'. I remember that day saying that… When Ikari was at the hospital, after he escaped from the Angel, and I spent the night looking after him."

Asuka remembered that one episode, Unit-01 making a Houdini by punching out of the zebra-striped ball after being stuck for almost a day in the pit made by the Angel. "I know that," she said. "Back then that was a crappy day for me, you know."

Rei nodded, and she knew the details all too well: at that time she found herself at odds with Asuka, and nearly came close to blows when Misato intervened and kept both girls apart.

Asuka sighed. "The past doesn't matter anymore, now that I'm here," she said, preferring not to delve into their past rivalry.

* * *

Meanwhile, sitting on a folding chair provided for him, Shinji drank from a can of cola, while watching Asuka and Rei talking over the comlink. As he nursed his drink, Shinji remembered the faint memory of his mother's fatal contact experiment, where he stood watching from behind the window. He still remembered the words, words that were burned into him for a long time, and now they came back with clarity. Back then, he heard them talking from his behind.

"_Why's there a child in here?" Fuyutsuki questioned. Out there, Unit-01 stood, restrained with braces, hoses and cables connected to the purplish man-made leviathan. _

"_This is Chief Ikari's son," one of the scientists present answered, and she looked uncomfortable with the boy's presence. The conversation caught Shinji's attention and he turned around to see them._

_Glancing at the main screen, piping in the video feed from the Entry Plug, Fuyutsuki took the microphone and spoke into it. "Ikari," he said, sounding worried. "This isn't kindergarten, and today's supposed to be a very important day."_

_His mother, sitting in a prototype of an Entry Plug, right in the very heart of Unit-01, looked back at Fuyutsuki and said, "Sorry, Doctor Fuyutsuki. It's my fault that I brought him here."_

"_But... Yui, it's your contact experiment today. We're not supposed to have him around, and this is a risky time to do so."_

_She shook his head, as if her decision was something little to worry about. "That's why. You said today's important, so I want to show the promising future to my son."_

Shinji sighed deeply, and wondered why it had to happen that way. It was hard for him to guess what kind of future that his mother was talking about. Was it for his benefit, that his mother left Unit-01 as an inheritance for him to use, or for all mankind, still in dire straits even after fifteen years?

"May I talk to you?" Fuyutsuki asked him from behind.

Shinji stood up and whirled around to face the ex-professor, who stood before him and was holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee. "Uh, what is it, sir?"

Fuyutsuki sighed as the man walked closer to Shinji. "Thought it might be the best time for me to explain about your mother," he said, "which perhaps why sometimes you feel unsure with those unanswered questions that are eating you all too long. Seeing you stand before that Eva reminds me of what happened to her years ago."

"I have a question… Why Mom said she wanted to show the future to me? What was it? Eva?"

"Yes, I'm afraid that's right," Fuyutsuki answered. "It was your mother's decision, her risk, because at that time she was deeply embroiled in Project E as much as your father was, unlike today. However, because of her work she ran into trouble with certain people she only knows about, probably stepped on some toes."

Shinji blinked. "What people?"

Fuyutsuki gazed up at Unit-02. "Do you know who's actually behind NERV? The men who put it up at the beginning, and provide the funding for our continued operation?"

"No," Shinji said, shaking his head. "I have no idea."

"I'm sure you haven't heard about the Committee, who sometimes asks me, your father or Misato about how you Children and the Evas are doing. Well, they're the _real_ bosses, the overseers who are behind all this, and they're also around even before Second Impact. Going back to your mother, just before she 'died' in Unit One, she found herself in complete disagreement with some of the members of the Committee, as her ideas didn't match up with theirs."

"Which is…?"

"They argued over the implementation of Project E, and when your mother found out they rejected her views, passed censure on her, and one of them even threatened her life, she came up with a plan to outwit them by requesting to conduct a contact experiment. With Unit One."

With Shinji listening on, wanting to know more, Fuyutsuki paused to take a sip of his coffee, before resuming.

"On that day and I still remember it," he said, "you weren't aware of what's really going on behind the scenes."

"I could now remember what you were worrying about, though," Shinji said.

"Good, it's coming back to you. As I could recall, we tried to recover whatever's left of your mother, just like what happened to you a few months back; we inserted probes, irradiated the Plug with beams, ran the scanners over and over, and tried everything." Fuyutsuki shook his head. "All we managed to take was the LCL from the plug."

"I thought she was dead… Father told me her grave is empty; just a tombstone."

"On the contrary," Fuyutsuki said. "We believe that she, her soul, was _absorbed _into Unit One."

The young boy was stunned. "What?"

Yet at the same time snippets of memories came back to him. More voices of his mother.

"_Is it enough? Well, that's good for you."  
"What do you want?"_

Next thing he remembered a scene between his mother and father.

"_It's an unfortunate pity that this child will live after Second Impact, in this Hell," Gendo said, looking pessimistic. They were at the levee, under the shade of a towering oak, protected from the glare and heat of the mid-afternoon sun. Beyond them was Lake Ashinoko, its waves glittered in light._

_Yui merely shrugged, as if unperturbed while she nursed Shinji in her arms. "Well, if he wants to live, to survive, anywhere could become Heaven," she said._

"_I doubt about it," Gendo replied._

"_Think again," she said, before sighing. "Because if he really lives, even in this world we live in, he will find a chance to be happy anywhere."_

_Gendo pondered her words for a moment, and then said, "I see. You may be right."_

And further back into the past.

"_Have you decided?" Yui asked. She was then pregnant, lying in bed, and Gendo was standing right in front of her. Both of them were in a hospital room._

_Gendo sighed, before he said, "Let's see… I'll name our child Shinji if it's a boy… Rei if it's a girl."_

_Yui nodded. "Shinji… Rei."_

Fuyutsuki nodded. "She's in the core now," he admitted. "Living on, I believe, in that Eva, almost just in the same way with Asuka's mother, and what happened today is proof that souls can survive."

"How did you know?"

"The data says so, but I only chose you to tell about it. I know her mother's there in Unit Two because I saw patterns in the data that indicates her presence… and there's the same patterns in the results of that contact experiment."

However, Fuyutsuki left out the fact that he and Gendo personally reviewed the after-experiment data as part of the investigation into the incident, and came into the conclusion that Yui's soul was present in the plug. Using whatever genetic and organic material left in the LCL, thinking the primordial soup contained her essence, they attempted to recreate Yui's form and accomplished that, yet were unable to recover her soul. Instead, all they wrought was Rei and she developed a personality of her own, much different from Yui.

But Rei possessed certain traits that Fuyutsuki reminded him much of Yui, such as her motherliness and the protective instinct that came with it.

"In your case, it means that your mother's not far from you," Fuyutsuki added. "Or, for that matter, she's closer than you think. Indeed, she's right among us."

Shinji needed not to ask any further, as he glanced at Rei sitting right before the communication console, still deep in conversation with Asuka. Fuyutsuki was correct, Rei was living proof that a part of his mother's personality persisted long after her physical presence disappeared from existence.

Fuyutsuki then turned to Maya, who was still working at another workstation, and asked, "How she's holding up?"

"Let's see, sir…" Maya said, checking the terminals before her, and shot a glance at the main display. "Sync and harmonics are still within acceptable levels. No major changes so far."

"Good," Fuyutsuki agreed. "Anything else?"

"Barring a single surge spike at the beginning," she said, "everything's normal, just like before she lost almost everything. By the figures, I'd say she can even be combat-ready, sir."

The old man merely smiled and, turning to face the crew, he said aloud, "By the way, since this test is clearly a major success for us all, I suppose everyone's lunch is on _me_."

Everyone, including Maya, blinked in reaction to Fuyutsuki's offer of a free lunch, whispering as they relayed the declaration. Even Rei and Asuka paused, latching into the old man's announcement.

"No, this is no joking matter, people," he said wryly, as Shinji looked on. "I _really_ mean it; whether you're present here or the crew down at the test floor, I'll reimburse your lunch expenses as long I'm sitting and eating with the rest of you right there at the Cafeteria, and Miss Langley deserves her reward."

Suddenly the control room erupted in applause. Free lunch! From the Sub-Commander, no less!

* * *

Just as they walked into the control room, Misato and Kaworu were stunned by the unexpected uproar of cheers.

"What the hell's going on?" Misato asked, blinking.

"I have no idea," Kaworu answered.

But the woman, by eavesdropping into the conversation between the techs, now had an answer: the Sub-Commander was willing to pay for their lunch at his own expense. Misato then chuckled amusedly. "Well, sounds like the Sub-Commander must be really on a roll this time," she remarked.

"He should be," Kaworu added. "After all, it's Asuka's comeback."

At the same time Shinji rose up from his seat, and Rei was walking towards them. "How did it go?" Shinji asked Misato as the First Children stood besides him.

"It's okay, we talked and then agreed on something," Misato answered.

Shinji scratched his head. "What is it?"

Misato shook her head. "Can't tell you. But anyway, is Asuka doing okay?"

"No problem," Shinji said.

"She was happy even while talking to me," Rei added.

"What did you two talked about?" Kaworu asked.

"I cannot say," the red-eyed girl answered. "It is too personal. Only between us."

"Ah, I see," Kaworu said, nodding.

Shinji suddenly chuckled. "Never thought you'll be into girl talk, Ayanami," he remarked.

"It is not a problem," Rei said. "I have discovered that there is good conversation, no matter how small or trivial."

"Say, what else we should be doing after this and lunch?" Misato asked them all. "There seems to be nothing scheduled this afternoon."

"I would like to spend time with Kaworu," Rei said, with Kaworu nodding in agreement.

"Tea time again?" Misato inquired, before she grinned. "…Or something _more_ than that?" the woman added.

The question caught Rei unawares; she quickly blushed and Kaworu blinked.

"No," Rei objected, shaking her head. "_Not_ that sort of thing."

Shinji – wide-eyed and with a sweatdrop on his forehead – wondered what got into Misato's brain to ask such a question. Maybe she was probably trying to have a bit of Kaji's playful attitude and jesting, just like when they first met Asuka on the aircraft carrier. Heck, if Kaji were to be alive today, and somehow knew that Rei and Kaworu were going steady, surely he would tease the girl to death by asking about her _sex life_. He thus imagined this exchange between them:

"_Are you dating Nagisa?" Kaji asked._

_Rei merely nodded. "Yes." _

_Kaji grinned and questioned bluntly, "Tell me, have you lost your virginity?"_

"Okay, sorry, I'll not bother you," Misato said apologetically, but in a humorous tone. "I'll have it your way, whether it's tea or something."

"Thank you," Rei said, managing to heave a relieved sigh.

Misato now turned her attention to the Sub-Commander's workstation and saw the old man stand up, before he glanced at the timer on the main display: two minutes left.

* * *

The control room was now hushed into near silence, as the techs were hunched over their terminals. Fuyutsuki nodded to Makoto to begin powering down Unit-02.

"Initiate shutdown sequence," Makoto announced, as he glanced at the displays before him, with all systems in the green.

"Preparing to disconnect the power," Shigeru said, typing out the termination commands on his workstation, before he had his fingers on the main power switches.

"Okay, go switch to power-down," Makoto replied.

Shigeru flipped the first switch, and they could hear the power slowly beginning to fade out, as the current and voltage meters plummeted until zero. Inside Unit-02, Asuka could see the walls of her Entry Plug dim and then the whole interior plunged into darkness, before the auxiliary lights came on. She gave out a contented sigh of satisfaction, now that issues between her and Unit-02 were finally settled; they were a team once again.

"All power's down," Shigeru announced, nodding.

"Now disengage the Umbilical Cord," Makoto commanded.

"Roger that," the long-haired tech replied as he flipped the second switch to unplug the Umbilical Cord, actuators contracting as the oversized electrical plug came off the Eva's back before being pulled off by a robot arm.

"Disconnection confirmed," Maya said. "Entry Plug is ready to be released."

"Go release," Makoto answered, and the petite tech pressed a large button on her console. The video feed on the back of the Eva showed the protective carapace retracting, before the Entry Plug was pulled out by an outsized extractor, gripping the Plug's circumference. The extractor then swiveled to the insertion deck, and another actuated arm went down to pull back the cover over Asuka's cockpit.

"Release and recovery complete," Maya said. "Now locking down Unit Two," she added, as the extractor inserted a terminal plug into the Eva, and then they could hear a loud metallic snap once the binder locks were in place.

Fuyutsuki sighed, feeling contented. "Okay, now what do we have in the last thirty minutes? VR on the main display, please," he ordered. VR meant a visual representation of the data.

"Yes, sir," Maya said as she typed some commands to gather and sum up the overall performance data, before displaying it right onscreen. The graphs showed everything at normal levels, especially her harmonics, just like back when Asuka was at her peak.

"Overall sync performance is 44%, sir," Maya reported, and she sighed in pleasure. "Guess this one's will be for the books."

"Very good," Fuyutsuki praised, and then he turned his gaze towards Misato and the Children. "You better come and meet Miss Langley down there," he said.

Misato nodded. "Thanks sir," she replied, before turning to her charges. "C'mon, let's go," she persuaded them, leading the way out of the control room and down to the plug insertion deck via elevator. But once the elevator doors closed on them, Ritsuko Akagi passed by, on her way to the control room.

* * *

At his workstation, Fuyutsuki was listening to his subordinates' comments and oral reports when Ritsuko walked in with a plastic bag containing Oda's laptop.

"Oh," the old man said as he stood up and smiled. "So you're here."

Ritsuko nodded, as the techs walked back to their stations in quiet deference for their superiors' need for a one-on-one discussion. "That's right, and I'm sorry if I'm late, yet I want to congratulate Asuka, sir," she said, before she glanced up at the main display. "She has done well… 43 percent," the woman remarked in praise. "I never thought she could make a real turn-around… But where's Misato?"

"She and the Children went down to meet Asuka."

Ritsuko nodded. "I see. I'll wait instead."

"What about the laptop?" Fuyutsuki asked, referring to the killer's computer.

"All of his data has been transferred to Hamamoto," Ritsuko informed, lifting the bag for him to see before she sat down on an empty chair. "I also made copies should we need to analyze them on our own."

"Good," he said. "What else you have found?"

Ritsuko placed the bag on her lap. "Well, yes, there is. Thought you might find it very interesting: by his inbound IP addresses this guy has contacts anywhere from Russia, China, Europe, and America… I think he's part of a network, because he seems to be keeping a form of shorthand for some of his correspondence, and it's up to Section Two to guess his codes. Of course, some of his communications are encrypted, his contacts are using email addresses under different names, and he also sanitizes his internet browser and IM, while hiding behind a Garlic Router network to lose anyone trying to trace his whereabouts."

The Garlic Network, created and operated by a non-profit group, was one way to allow political dissidents, whistle-blowers and, of course, spies, to keep their internet access secure from prying governments.

Fuyutsuki then pondered for a while and then he said, "You know, there's another way to get as much information as possible, like you try to act as Oda behind that laptop."

Ritsuko shook her head. "Masquerading may sound like a good idea, but I think by now he has been compromised and so his handlers may have ditched him to ensure no one could try to trace back to them. I'm sorry, sir."

"I see… Finally," Fuyutsuki said. "Are you ready to talk to Misato?"

The woman scientist sighed. "I want to make up for the mistakes between us," she said. "I also like to settle some issues… and I'd like to apologize to her."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "It's perfectly understandable," he agreed. "Moreover, I find it a critical necessity that you two women must set aside your animosities as we're at a very difficult time."

"I understand," Ritsuko said.

The old man stared at her and said, "Frankly, I don't want to see you people fall apart; I don't want to watch the Children become divided and demoralized, and I want to keep this organization united and afloat even as we do have a crisis in leadership."

"Speaking of leadership," Ritsuko spoke. "Where's he?" she questioned, referring to Gendo.

"You mean Ikari?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Yes."

Fuyutsuki sighed. "He's still up there, at his office. Just before I left him he told me he'll watch the test from there… Well, why?"

"Funny, you're in charge now more than he is," Ritsuko remarked. "Dunno, but because of your seniority and, judging from how much work you're doing, you should've been in his position in the first place."

"I should have," Fuyutsuki said, "but because Project E is his brainchild, he's supposed to be responsible for everything, and I was intended to serve as his advisor. However, I'm like Gandalf trying to deal with Denethor."

Ritsuko blinked. "Come again? What are you talking about?"

"Sorry," Fuyutsuki said wryly. "They're from the _Lord of the Rings._ Now, to clear things for you, as a steward Denethor was supposed to be wholly responsible for the city he should be defending against Sauron, and naturally Gandalf must persuade that man to take action. The problem is that Denethor has gone mad and feared inevitable defeat in the hands of their enemies, so he planned to take his ill son with him by immolation. Thus Gandalf had to stop him from doing that suicidal stunt… and I'm afraid I'm in the same position as that wizard."

"So… In that sense, you mean you're trying to take charge?" Ritsuko inquired, this time in a low voice.

"Considering Ikari is becoming fickle by the minute, I may have to step in, should things come to worse," Fuyutsuki said. "If the Committee decides to take unfavorable action towards us, there's no choice except to defend ourselves, as they're not pleased at where we're going towards right now."

Ritsuko looked alarmed. "But, does it mean they could also use _violent _action?"

"Given their vast resources, that's no longer a remote possibility, which is why I approved the acquisition of new weaponry for our security forces because I fear they will do anything to get what they want."

* * *

At the plug insertion deck, whilst his men went about inspecting the Entry Plug, Kasuga the crew chief tossed a towel to Asuka, who caught and then used it to dry her LCL-soaked hair. Once done, she then stood up and threw the towel back to the man. "Thanks," she said.

Kasuga nodded. "My pleasure, miss, and congratulations… And oh, here they come," he said as Misato and the other Children walked out of the service elevator. In varying degrees they looked glad.

"Hey, congratulations to you!" Misato said aloud as Shinji rushed towards Asuka, who was getting off the cockpit, and they hugged and kissed.

Kaworu and Rei likewise smiled and looked at each other, and then without warning Asuka gave Rei the firmest hug possible. "I owe you a million, you know," the redhead said.

"I understand," Rei answered, almost in a muffled tone as she was squeezed, before Asuka let go of her.

The Second Children sighed and grinned. "I wish that sometimes soon you should've been fighting alongside me, had it not for losing Unit Zero."

"My duty with Unit Zero is done," Rei said. "It is more acceptable for me to watch you in action instead."

"Oh, well," Asuka shrugged. "It's your choice, Rei. I'll respect that."

"Thank you," Rei said before she took hold of Kaworu's hand. Asuka then turned her attention to Kaworu.

"As for you," the redhead said, "If it weren't for you and your advice, all of my efforts would've come to nothing. I thank you again for asking me to give myself another chance, Kaworu."

Kaworu nodded. "It's still my pleasure helping you out," he replied.

* * *

Somewhere in Siberia, deep within the secret military base, and inside a hangar of unimaginably huge proportions, Keel Lorenz and the other Committee members glanced up at Eva Unit-05, who had "horse blinders" in lieu of eyes and its disturbing grin was permanently plastered on its elongated cetacean face. Designated as Mass Production Eva models, this white-painted monster and eight others of its brethren had their outsized wings folded, and they were held down onto each of their own restraining binder frames. Throughout this immense hangar, teams of technicians serviced these Evas, blissfully unaware of their true purpose as they went on their maintenance duties.

"Gentlemen," Keel said, pointing at Unit-05, "this is money well-spent. Eight billion American dollars apiece, decades' worth of research, yet good for a single day's use. However, let us be aware that in Instrumentality, money will be rendered irrelevant, to exist only as a memory among many material possessions."

The other somber old men nodded and whispered their agreements. For the first time in the history of their sect, they have come together as men rather than holographic monoliths, and earlier as they congregated at their designated meeting place they remarked about their appearances and well-being. Despite all of them being wealthy and powerful, a quarter of them were diagnosed with a terminal disease, more than half were widowers, and only a handful had to walk with their crutches or survive on cybernetic implants.

With Keel's remark, however, they knew damn well that only Instrumentality was the cure to all of their mortal and corporeal ills, as no amount of wealth, the potency of medicine, or religious beliefs would resolve the dilemma of death; they want to succeed where pharaohs, emperors, kings and other demigods of old have failed: to obtain eternal life through apotheosis at any cost.

"All nine of these Evas," Keel began to speak before the rest of the Committee, "are at the pinnacle of perfection. First, they have working S2 Engines, which of course will allow them to outlast their opponents, regenerate more quickly if injured, and provide immense amount of energy to generate an AT Field more powerful than what Ikari has with his Evas.

"Second, they have flight capacity with wings and AT Field levitation, which will give them another edge in combat, as Ikari's Evas are stuck on the ground like sitting ducks. Any attempts at shooting them down with conventional weapons will be futile.

"Finally, and the best part, gentlemen… they all have Dummy Plugs, and with Nagisa's thought patterns. Repeated testing of their systems through combat simulations resulted in a near-perfect victory over our opponents. Furthermore, these Plugs also have the advantage of self-learning, meaning to say that they will learn the tricks and tactics of their enemies as they go, and use them to their advantage. If Ikari sends his Children to confront and make battle with our Evas, then it would be a suicidal gesture on their part."

The Committee members were all pleased, and thus they gave Keel their applause. However, Keel gestured with an upraised finger, and said, "In case you're wondering about what weapon these Evas will be carrying, ours have a surprise hidden in them."

Silenced, the men present listened closely except for one, pale as Death with the white hair and a gaunt face, who then asked, "And what is it?"

Keel grinned. "We have successfully replicated the properties of the original Spear of Longinus," he disclosed, "and they're disguised as swords. If deployed in Spear form they will cut through an AT Field with little effort."

Gasps of astonishment came from the other old men. Their collective reaction pleased Keel and he added, "There's nothing for us to lose. The advantage is indisputably ours. Whatever he does, we will make Ikari pay for his betrayal, as we watch his Rome burn to the ground... _By hook or by crook, we will_."

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** It took some time to get this chapter finished, and writing thus becomes very uneasy to do, for I had to deal with personal issues and general disruption. Right now, I'm trying to visualize/think/brainstorm the next chapter.

Again, thanks for keeping me up.


	27. Rebuilding Bridges

_Can you believe the life you led? / Did you achieve the goals you set? / Did you lose your mind? / Now and then… / Is there a reason you won't mend? / It is a season that won't end / Can't believe it's that / time of year again…  
_- Sick Puppies, "That Time of Year"

_Pray you now, forget and forgive.  
_- William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), _"King Lear"_, Act 4 scene 7

* * *

Amidst the chatter of relaxing personnel, either sitting at their stations or gathering with their fellows or talking to Fuyutsuki, for the first time in years, or it seemed to her, Ritsuko felt nervous about meeting Misato once more; she wasn't really sure how she could say the first words since they walked away from the Dummy Plug Plant without a word between the two women. As she sat on the chair provided for her, she remembered that moment of total shame, of walking in tears, trying to wipe them away from her cheeks, as she pondered the consequences of her actions.

Fortunately they were only three of them at that time, and once Misato pulled her up from the floor, the woman promised that none of what happened down there would ever be told, except later Gendo somehow knew what was going on, and in his cold and silent fury ordered her arrest.

Ritsuko sighed, as she willed her mind to bring back the past, when she had a measure of independence from her mother's shadow…

Back then, she and Misato were once different women and of different upbringing, who became friends in college, and out of mutual friendship they stayed for a while in the dorm together. Despite that they tried to put up with each other's personal quirks, they managed to go through those four years before going on their separate ways: Misato volunteering for training at NERV Germany, and Ritsuko for post-graduate studies.

In those care-free years, regardless of the taxing expectations of her chosen vocation, Ritsuko understood a bit of Misato's proclivities, of her weaknesses and strengths, and kept that woman's behavior in check whenever she stepped out of line, such as her legendary beer binges or her affair with Ryoji Kaji, who was then majoring in philosophy.

Oh, she really liked the man and his charms, but Ritsuko had become all too used to living without men, unable to comprehend them completely, ever since her mother divorced her father at the age of four.

Ritsuko remembered her mother's lecture at the dinner table, as they ate their breakfast:

"_Where's Daddy?" Ritsuko asked. She was wearing a kindergartener's yellow smock, and her book bag rested against the leg of the chair she was sitting on. Both mother and daughter were eating their breakfast of instant noodle bowls, as they were in a hurry to catch the 7:30 train._

_Naoko, in her customary purple turtleneck sweater and black slacks, shook her head. "He's not coming back."_

_Ritsuko frowned. "Why?"_

"_Don't think about him, don't say anything," Naoko answered. "Remember that. Do you know why I kept you at your bedroom? Wonder why we're shouting every night?"_

"_Why?"_

_Naoko looked frustrated, but kept her composure. "Don't get mad at me, but I'm through with that sonofabitch, and you don't want someone like him for you to marry someday. You can't trust men anymore, and all they do is to make lies and promises, while they hide their scruples and affairs from you."_

_Taken aback with the response, Ritsuko blinked. "Mommy, I still don't understand."_

_Naoko sighed, as if wondering if her child could sense the depth and complexity of adults and their troubles, and of the extent of the divide that preceded the divorce._

"_Listen to me," Naoko said, staring at Ritsuko, who stopped eating and put down her chopsticks. "You want to live a happy life?"_

"_Yes," Ritsuko answered._

"_I want you to succeed, so that someday you would never experience the same pain as I have. Study hard as much as you can, and should you get in trouble, ask for my help; don't deny it. You're my daughter and you're the only family I have left, and I don't want to lose you. Got it?"_

_Ritsuko silently nodded._

"_I know you're a smart little girl, and you should stay that way. Don't let anyone put you in second place, ever. Choose your friends carefully, and be careful when they lie against you, and if they ever betray you, leave them and never look back. If you must love someone someday, don't let your heart get in the way; think before you feel, or your heart could be broken. Understand?"_

"_Yes, Mommy."_

_Naoko reached out her arm over the table to extend a pinky and Ritsuko did the same, coupling both of their fingers in a vow of promise._

"_Promise me that you'll do what I say, okay?" she said._

"_I will, Mommy… I love you, too."_

_Naoko smiled, even as she used the gesture to hide the bitterness in her heart._

Ritsuko blinked, wondering why her mind suddenly veered that way. She then groaned, blaming herself for having too many things to worry about, and she fought the urge to light up yet another cigarette to cure the anxiety. So instead she took a deep breath; inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale slowly, trying to slow down her heart rate.

Relieved, she rose from the chair and walked up to Fuyutsuki, who was watching his subordinates pack up their papers, preparing to leave for lunch.

"Yes?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Sir, mind if you can tell Misato that I'll be waiting for her outside?" Ritsuko said.

The old man nodded. "You may do so," he answered. "Don't worry, I'll be here, and if you're needed, I'll ask Miss Ibuki to fetch you."

"Thank you, sir," Ritsuko said before she pivoted and walked away.

As he watched the woman leave, Fuyutsuki hoped that today Misato and Ritsuko settle their animosities properly as grown women.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 27: REBUILDING BRIDGES  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 8/30/2010 9:12 a8/p8

* * *

In the locker room, perhaps another first for her as she took off her plug suit, Asuka was happy enough to know that finally Unit-02 was once more part of her life. It didn't matter if she obtained a beginner's sync rate; it was important that her mother made her presence and she knew damn well she'll be safe.

Throughout the stability test, Asuka avowed to keep her personal encounter with her mother a secret between them, and even if the Sub-Commander pressed for an explanation, she'll just shrug and say it's all just a fluke.

From the gym bag, Asuka pulled out her favorite yellow sundress and some underwear, and then laid them on the bench, before picking up her towel and draped it over her shoulder.

"Are you done?" Shinji asked. The boy was hanging around outside the locker room, waiting whilst Misato and the Eva crew chief were talking, and Asuka guessed that Kaworu and Rei must be having some quiet sweet nothings as they glanced at the red Eva right over the platform.

"Not yet," Asuka responded. "Just a few more minutes for a shower."

"Okay," Shinji agreed.

Once she walked into the shower stall and turned the faucet open, Asuka let the water blast downwards. The last time Asuka was here, she was then falling apart, and right at this very spot she cursed herself, repeatedly punching the separator wall after her sync rate hit zero.

But not today. She felt totally in peace with herself, with little to worry about, even as she knew they were far from safe from danger; if needed be, she'll defend herself again.

Turning down the shower head flow, Asuka picked up the bar of soap and began to lather it up over her body, to take away the LCL odor that sometimes remained after being soaked in the Entry Plug.

She wondered what was coming up after this, and then she figured that if an Angel showed in the neighborhood, no problem, she'll rise to the challenge again. But rather than fighting alone, she'll want Shinji by her side and give him a chance to have a crack at the enemy.

But then she wondered in what form their next opponent would be. Hopefully the next confrontation should be easy as cake, not like the last time when the Angel had the crushing advantage at around 210 kilometers above the Earth, until Rei threw the Spear to put its lights out.

No, Asuka disagreed; she'll rather have the enemy bring it on, throw everything even the kitchen sink, and would be glad to give those bastards her best game face.

* * *

While Shinji and his companions waited outside, Crew Chief Kasuga walked up to Misato and he said, "Colonel, you're being summoned at the control room."

Misato blinked. "By whom?"

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki would like you to talk to Doctor Akagi. She's waiting by the hallway."

The woman sighed. "Okay, I'll be there in a minute," she said, before turning her attention to Shinji, Kaworu and Rei. "Guys, I'm being needed up there."

"Why?" Shinji asked.

"Doctor Akagi arrived, and I must talk to her," Misato said.

Shinji nodded. "Okay, but is it all right if the four of us go first for lunch?"

Misato smiled as if to assure him. "Sure, you guys have to. Don't worry about me, okay? I'll catch up with you."

"Take care," the boy responded, yet within he wondered if Ritsuko was all right to talk, especially after what happened down at the Dummy Plug Plant.

"I'll see you later at the Cafeteria," Misato said, before walking towards the elevator.

Once the elevator doors closed, Rei said, "It is not the fault of Doctor Akagi."

"Why?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji blinked. "How did you know?"

"Your father had told me what she did at the Plant, but I do not blame her," the girl said. "Still, I feel it is her time to make up for all of her mistakes."

Just then Asuka came out of the locker room, now dressed in her yellow sundress. Wondering why Misato was gone, she asked, "Where's she?"

"She went up," Shinji answered. "She has some business to do with Doctor Akagi."

"What sort of business?"

"Redemption, I think," Rei added.

"For what?"

Rei gave Asuka a noncommittal facial expression. "I am not sure," she said.

* * *

About two hundred meters away from the control room, Ritsuko stood by one of the huge windows overlooking the Geofront grounds, the landscape extending as far as to the walls of the still-mysterious shell. In her hands she nursed an open can of warm green tea, a welcome change from her usual java she purchased from the vending machines, simply another way to make her relax in preparation for the inevitable encounter.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Misato walking right up to her. Ritsuko pivoted to confront and in a calm voice she said, "I've been waiting for you."

Misato nodded. "I know. You wanted to talk."

"Yes, I have to," Ritsuko said. "Let's sit down for a while," she added, gesturing that they should take a seat on the benches facing the windows.

Once settled on the bench, with Misato looking at her, Ritsuko set the can on the floor, took a deep breath and said, "Listen to me. I have thought about this for a time since I stayed in the Stockade… I don't know why, of all things, have found myself following Mom's footsteps and made the same mistakes as she did."

Ritsuko ran her hand back over her chestnut-brown hair. "Do you know why I was involved with him?"

Misato shook her head. "Never. Not until now."

"After Mom's death I fell for him initially out of sympathy, as he asked me back then that I must continue her work, that he couldn't live without someone to help him out. So I agreed, after he explained that without Mom it wouldn't be possible for him to continue his work."

Ritsuko looked up and gazed at the scenery. "God, I fell for that story. He also told me that my involvement would decide the fate of humanity, and that I could accomplish something, like finishing Mom's legacy; doesn't matter even if I get nominated for a Nobel Prize, as long as I work on the MAGI and Project E.

"Throughout the time I held my feelings back from everyone, especially you. I didn't want to say what I truly am, for I was afraid you might not understand me and my feelings."

Ritsuko thought of Rei and the indifference she made towards that girl. "Do you know why I hated Rei? I then thought she took away everything I had towards the Commander, and that she was responsible for my mother's suicide."

Misato looked surprised this time. "What?"

Ritsuko closed her eyes, before she explained the version of events that led to her mother's demise, of the older Akagi called a "useless hag" before she strangled the first Rei and threw herself off the ledge.

"…and after I came out of the morgue," Ritsuko said, "I was angry, grieving, but I couldn't understand why. I thought that this other… Rei did this bad joke of hers on Mom, and after the funeral I sought for an explanation from the Commander... No, I mean, Ikari. But he told me that this Rei was an aberration, a flaw, and that I shouldn't be worried because she had replacements. But I was jealous, and in the years that followed I kept my distance professionally. Never bothered myself to view Rei as a human being, but more of an experiment."

Ritsuko pursed her lips and added, "You wonder why I tend to be cold towards the Children; I was asked not to have any feelings while I do things to them, I was told not to be too concerned about their lives... But I did so out of obeying Ikari, of satisfying his needs. I don't care as long as he even had his hands over my body, as long as he appreciated and supported my work."

The woman scientist bowed her head, and with her fingers pinched her tear ducts.

"Yet… Yet I was really a fool—" Ritsuko whispered.

Misato shook her head. "No, don't torture yourself again," she reminded. "You're not what you think."

"I know… As I was in jail, I regretted being involved in this… scheme. I wished I was somebody else. I wished I was never born this way, and I wished Mom should've given a chance to make up my mind a long time ago."

"I understand what you mean," Misato said. "It's impossible to go back and undo everything. What matters is now and tomorrow."

"That's right," Ritsuko agreed. "I also think that's what Fuyutsuki had in mind when he sprang me out. Anyway, I have decided to save myself the anguish, which I must have this albatross taken off my shoulders. And to get there, I want to help you."

"Help?" Misato asked.

"Look, you're not alone in this," Ritsuko said, looking concerned, "and certainly you can't hack this all by yourself, and it could get you killed. I don't want you to wind up like Kaji, so you need help as part of my penance."

"I know I can't do this alone, but how could I trust you this time?" Misato questioned, yet inwardly it was clear that Ritsuko has finally made up her mind, following Kaworu's earlier admission.

"I finally figured out what Kaji was really after," Ritsuko said. "Not because his employers asked him for it, but because he feared what would happen if forbidden power goes into the wrong hands, and humanity's fate could go with it."

Misato frowned. "Are you going to fight the Man?" she asked, with a veiled reference to Commander Ikari.

"Not directly," Ritsuko answered. "There's a smarter way to do just that, without us having to get hurt. Besides, if we are to honor Kaji's memory, it's up to us to accomplish where he failed. This is our risk to take, and once we find out, we'll uncover what we know."

From the pocket of her lab coat, Ritsuko produced the souvenir from Kaji, a keychain with a stylized face of a cat on the fob, and handed it over to Misato, who held and examined it with two fingers.

"It's from him," Ritsuko said. "He said he bought this keychain in Matsushiro, but it really came from Kyoto because I saw something like that while attending a university symposium there."

Misato returned the cat keychain back to Ritsuko, and the woman pocketed it.

"I still don't know what he was up to right there," Ritsuko admitted.

"So do I," Misato agreed.

For a while both women paused for a half-minute to let the memories sink in.

"Remember the night we all three of us went out for a drink?" Ritsuko said, breaking the silence.

"Well, yes," Misato answered.

Ritsuko smiled wistfully. "You said he didn't change, but he said otherwise because he's also living."

"And you said about homeostasis and transis… What was that?" Misato said, fumbling on the spelling.

"Transistasis," Ritsuko corrected her.

"And if I correctly quote you and Kaji right…" Misato said, "the power to preserve the status quo, and then the power to change; and the thing which has those two contradictory properties is life, and men and women represent them."

Ritsuko nodded approvingly. "Not bad," she praised. "You damn remember very well, even after knocking back ten mugs of beer and six shot-glasses of vodka that night."

Misato grinned; relieved that somehow Ritsuko was getting her old groove back. "Thanks. Is that an estimate?"

"More like a guesstimate based on how much you booze," Ritsuko quipped.

Both women chuckled for a while until Misato gave Ritsuko a serious expression.

"What?" Ritsuko asked.

"You're not alone," Misato said. "This isn't our only fight for both of us."

Ritsuko looked surprised. "Who else?"

"Hyuga, Odani, and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. They're all deep in this as we are, and they're all worried as to where the Man and the Committee could be leading us into."

"Good," Ritsuko said. "Since you want to finish the puzzle, and I think I still have my security clearances intact, I'll give you some more pieces. Only then we'll see if we could stop Frankenstein's monster before it goes out of control."

In unison both women stood up. Ritsuko stared at Misato and asked, this time in a reconciliatory tone. "Now… After all those years of denying you, can you forgive me this time?"

Misato nodded, but inwardly surprised once she saw Ritsuko's eyes well up with tears, and they came cascading down her cheeks. "Yes, it's all right," she answered. "You still have a chance to live, to be what you wanted to be…"

"T… Thanks," Ritsuko whispered before she hugged Misato, and the woman wept on her shoulder, sobbing.

* * *

Once more Hamamoto reported to Commander Ikari in his office, and again he was resistant to the cold stare behind the glasses. Inwardly Hamamoto wondered if the Commander wore something else other than his customary dress uniform, the same unbuttoned coat that revealed the suspenders holding up the man's pants. The old director knew well the Commander never wore anything else since the first day NERV was founded, and he also remembered that, hearing the tongues of old-timers who worked here even before the organization's establishment, the Commander once used to wear a lab coat, and it was unusual that a scientist should be made a leader of a paramilitary organization.

Hamamoto sighed, deciding that it was time to break the wordless impasse, after he watched the Commander finish reading the report.

"So," Gendo said. "You handed the terrorists over to the American CIA agents."

Two hours ago Hamamoto contacted the FBI liaison at the US Embassy in Tokyo-2, who then arranged a helicopter pickup to take the captured International Resistance men from NERV custody, to be extradited back to the United States. He never batted an eye, as he watched the terrorists, handcuffed, spouted claims of torture and other allegations while being dragged away by grim-faced Marines to a waiting pair of US Navy SH-60 Seahawk helicopters on the helipad.

"That's right, sir," Hamamoto said. "Whatever information we gleaned from those terrorists is satisfactory enough, as we need to concentrate on uncovering the rest of the mole network as soon as possible."

Gendo propped both hands to form a tent over the desk. The typical Ikari position. "How much time do you need to solve this case?"

"Well, sir, I do not wish to make estimations," Hamamoto reminded, "but it should be finished within forty-eight hours… Maybe even less if we finally have all the evidence in place and assembled together, especially with the data from Oda."

"Now, even though it's too early for you, do you know who's responsible for Oda? And who are his handlers?"

Hamamoto cleared his throat. "This maybe far-fetched, sir, but Oda exchanged information with a group somewhere in Europe, and we traced them to several corporations down in Dresden."

"Germany," Gendo added.

"That's right, sir," Hamamoto agreed. "In that report, there's a short list of possible suspects. We've already placed a signals interception watch on several of them, and should there's an unusual increase in activity, we'll mark them."

Gendo nodded, as he didn't need to mention to Hamamoto that the suspect firms in the list were mostly under SEELE's control through a welter of owners and impenetrable partnerships, and so he decided on another course of action, something they can handle easily; the old men would come later.

"Disregard the German suspects," Gendo said, his expression becoming cross. "Deal with the remaining mole first. Who knows, he might be even lurking within your office."

Hamamoto blanched, caught unawares. He felt like as though he was punched in the stomach.

"How can I trust your word if there's the possibility of betrayal in _your_ department?" Gendo questioned. "History tells us that the worst enemies are _inside_, and often they are well-hidden, not bringing attention to themselves. In our cause, it's the reason why sometimes we're in trouble."

"But…" Hamamoto trailed, futilely trying to find some way to placate Gendo.

"Do not hesitate; look into _your_ backyard first," Gendo commanded. "Make the most of your forty-eight hours, and whatever you do would make or break you."

Inwardly Hamamoto was fuming, but kept his composure. "Yes, sir. We'll act on it."

"And another thing, Director," Gendo said. "As far as the Fifth Children is concerned, anything up with the surveillance?"

"Yes, sir," Hamamoto said. "We've programmed the surveillance cameras to track Nagisa just about anywhere here, so about thirty minutes ago we manage to spot him with Colonel Katsuragi."

Gendo frowned. "And what he's doing with her this time?"

"They could be talking just about anything," Hamamoto said, not sure about the relationship between those two, as CCTV cameras only recorded video but not audio unless they plaster a room with listening bugs. "But I'll see if we could also acquire some audio surveillance."

"Act on it," Gendo said. "I want to know what he's up to, and if he turns out to be a bad apple… I want him captured _alive_. You understand?"

The old director blinked for a second, thinking about asking why and what plans Ikari had for Nagisa, but then decided otherwise; he nodded, for he had to follow orders if he intended to keep his job till retirement.

"Yes, sir. It's not going to be a problem," he answered. "We'll handle it."

* * *

The four Children walked amongst the crowd, mostly on their way to the Cafeteria. Rei watched Shinji and Asuka walking in unison, hands together, while Kaworu was beside her.

Inwardly Rei nearly forgot Ritsuko, and she wondered what that doctor thought of her this time. Was she angry at her? Was she afraid? Is it because of the Commander?

She didn't know for sure, because it had been days since the last time she saw Doctor Akagi, who was above her the first time she opened her eyes, on the bed since the destruction of Unit-00. At that moment, Ritsuko stared at her while holding a clipboard, before she summoned Rei to sit erect and went through the motions of examining the First Children's chest with a stethoscope.

Throughout the examination Ritsuko said nothing except for mentioning her vital signs, before going to the IV drip and checked the flow rate, adjusting the drip valve, and wordlessly left the room.

Rei, however, was able to read the signs in Ritsuko's eyes despite the seemingly calm and clinical demeanor in the woman's face: desperation, anger, longing, bitterness, the want and the need.

As if he managed to sense the girl's dilemma through psychic contact, Kaworu asked, "What's wrong, Ayanami?"

"I am not sure about Doctor Akagi," Rei said almost quietly.

"Because you don't know whether she's angry or afraid of you, I think."

"That is what is in my mind. I am worried."

Kaworu smiled. "Not when you're with me," he said. "If ever she wants to talk to you, I'll be with you, is it all right?"

Rei nodded, feeling relieved that Kaworu wanted her to be happy. "Yes. Thank you again."

Asuka, having overheard the conversation, swiveled her head and asked, "What's wrong, Wondergirl? Trouble with Doctor Akagi?"

"I do not know what she feels about me this time," Rei answered.

"Hey, we're all in this together," Asuka reassured, "and if you need some help, tell me."

Shinji asked, "Ayanami, why don't we talk about it right at the table? You know, it'll be better if you could share what you're feeling about."

Asuka nodded. "That's right."

Once more Rei nodded and said, "That would be acceptable."

* * *

Misato reached deep into her pocket for a handkerchief and gave it to Ritsuko, who daubed it on her cheeks and eyes.

"Thanks," Ritsuko said as she returned the hankie. She felt relieved this time. "Would you like to get to the bottom of what's going on?"

"That's right," Misato answered.

"Now, if my memory serves correctly, there's about twelve gigabytes of data accumulated in the last ten years, but I think it could be a lot longer than that. Most of them are records, log data, memos, journals, video clip recordings, pictures… the whole nine yards, all of it classified top secret and only three of us have access, you know."

"I see. What else?"

"Several of them will give you a clear picture of what really happened down at Antarctica," Ritsuko said. "The documents also have your father's name on it, and he'd been deep into that fiasco. I'm sure you haven't seen them, right?"

Misato shook her head. "Not yet. When you could show them to me?"

"First, we need to bring anyone involved together, and start piecing the evidence we all have. Now, do you have something else? The stuff that Kaji left for you, I think?"

"Yeah. For one, he left a flash memory card and I haven't got to open it. But Hyuga came up with some very interesting information on what the Committee's up to."

Ritsuko blinked. "Like what?"

Misato looked around, making sure that no one was eavesdropping, and she said, "Sorry, but they have built several new Evas."

Speechless, this time Ritsuko looked as if she was hit with a two-by-four, before she said, "I don't understand… How did the hell they manage to come up with… How many?"

"My source said there are nine," Misato said. "From the snapshots, they're probably are of advanced design, and all painted white. By now they've probably attained operational capability."

Ritsuko frowned. "That is not really good," she muttered. "Too many Evas running around with only one Angel coming isn't just overkill; it could mean something else."

"Yeah," Misato agreed, "and unless there's a massed Angel assault, which I think is too far-fetched, do you guess there's something _more _to the Evas than simply to kill Angels?"

Ritsuko remembered a faint memory of her conversation with Gendo, as they watched Unit-01 being cleaned up in the holding cage, attended by the maintenance crew as they directed the full blast of pressurized water cannons washing away the Angel gore:

"_Mind if I say something?" Ritsuko asked after adjusting her raincoat._

"_Sure," Gendo said, his agreement almost a grunt._

"_I'm worried about this," Ritsuko said as she squinted from the fine mist. "I have never felt this before, but that Eva has been more horrible than today… So, is Eva truly on our side?"_

_Gendo kept his eyes on the cleanup crew. "Why?"_

"_It may hate us, and Major Katsuragi may be aware of something about what we're really doing."_

_The bearded Commander nodded. "I see. For now, however, that is not an issue and you're not supposed to be worried about them. We're still in control."_

"_But if Rei and Shinji know the secrets of the Evas, they may never forgive us."_

_Gendo sighed. "Why do you have to worry when everything is going according to plan?"_

And earlier they argued about Shinji's plight as he was trapped in Unit-01, which in turn was trapped in the Angel's Sea of Dirac:

_Misato blinked, as she heard Ritsuko's only method of rescuing Unit-01. _

"_Forced salvaging?" she asked, almost stammering._

_Ritsuko sighed. "It's the only way that might work."_

"_How?"_

"_Dropping 992 N2 bombs in the central portion," Ritsuko said, pointing at the map of Hakone tacked to the whiteboard, "timed to within the activation of the two remaining Eva's AT-Fields to interfere with the imaginary circuit of the Angel. In that moment, we concentrate enough explosive energy to blow off the Angel along with the Sea of Dirac that forms its body."_

_Now that explained why those American B-52 bombers, orbiting high above their heads, were present in huge numbers; they all carried N2s in their bellies and affixed to wing pylons._

_This time Misato looked shocked. "But…" she stammered. "You know Eva's body can't... Shinji wouldn't... Good God, that's no rescue ops!"_

"_Getting Unit One's body intact is top priority," Ritsuko countered. "Nothing else. It doesn't matter if the body is destroyed."_

"_Wait a second… What do you mean?" Misato angrily questioned._

"_The pilot's life is irrelevant," Ritsuko answered nonchalantly. "He's expendable."_

_Grunting, Misato clenched her fist, crackling the knuckles, and then flattened out that palm and in one swift motion she slapped Ritsuko across the cheek, causing the other woman to cry out. She almost spun into the nearest console top, knocking several folders off the top onto the floor._

"_You…" Ritsuko muttered, wincing from the pain. "It'll be your fault if you screw up and lose Shinji right down there. It's your responsibility!"_

"_I FUCKING KNOW!" Misato yelled back. "That's my job and I know it, yet the Children under me are not expendable as you think! They're KIDS! HUMAN! I care about them! What's the goddamn reason you and Commander Ikari are so damn anal about Unit One? What is Eva?"_

_Startled by Misato's verbal explosion, the other personnel in the command truck rose from their seats, and they looked ready to restrain Misato and Ritsuko should things come to worse, like an all-out catfight._

"_You already know about it," Ritsuko said. "We've given you the information. Why the hell you want more than that?"_

"_Bullshit," Misato cursed. "All I'm getting is bullshit."_

_Ritsuko rubbed her cheek and said, "You'll have to trust me, Misato. I'm commanding _everything_ in this operation, and so you either take it or leave it. That's an order!"_

_Without another word Misato pivoted, and then stormed out of the mobile command truck, slamming the door behind her._

"_You're such a hopeless wino," Ritsuko muttered under her breath, as she picked up the tossed folders on the floor._

"I'm sorry about the last time we argued about this," Ritsuko said. "I know, and now you can ask me everything."

"Right," Misato said. "First of all… _What is Eva?_"

Ritsuko sighed and stared closely at her friend.

"Eva isn't just a mobile, Angel-killing machine," she answered. "Eva is also an instrument for Instrumentality, or that's what the Commander told me. How it was made for that purpose is a very complicated process."

"Fuyutsuki told me it is a man-made god."

Ritsuko nodded. "Of course. All of them are constructed from Adam's genetic material, but only Unit One is very unique because she was made from Lilith."

Misato blinked. "_Lilith?_ What Lilith?"

The lady doctor pointed downward, as to emphasize Lilith's existence. "She's right beneath us, and to be clear, even if they look similar, Lilith is _different _from Adam."

"So… So that means there are _two_ of them right now."

It was Ritsuko's turn to be startled. "What two?"

Misato explained about her earlier private conversation with Natsumi, who admitted Adam's existence and how she personally operated on Gendo's left hand to attach the creature. By the time Misato was finished, Ritsuko was blinking thrice.

"Really?" she said.

Misato nodded. "That's right. Now the question is, with Adam and Lilith right here in the Geofront, what's gonna happen if any of them would be used? To what purpose? I don't think they're here simply to be displayed like a house deity."

Ritsuko sighed, and said, "As we all know, we use the Evas to keep the Angels from making contact with either Adam or Lilith, to prevent another Impact from happening. However… If my memory serves me right, I was told that if ever Adam and Lilith come in contact with each other, it's possible to have a Third Impact."

Misato frowned. "Who said that?"

"Ikari. He's really doing all the planning and research for the Instrumentality Project, and then he gives out the orders for us to work on. Now if you could only see his quarters…" she trailed, but then blinked. "Have you understood Cabbalism?"

"Cabbalism? Well… No," Misato answered, shaking her head. "I have no idea, except maybe for that diagram the Commander has right up on the ceiling of his office."

"That's the Athanasius Kirchner Sephirotic System diagram, which is really the Tree of Life," Ritsuko clarified, before explaining that the diagram's creator was a Christian mystic and scientist who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine. He penned the diagram, which originally appeared in his work _Oedipus Aegyptiacus_, published between 1652 and 1654.

Going further, Ritsuko said that the Tree of Life (_Etz HaChayim_) is a term from the Hebraic system of exegesis, named _Qabalah_ (or either _Kabbalah_ or _Cabala_), to describe a diagram composed of 10 Numbers and 22 Letters. Hence, adherents of that belief system were called Cabbalists.

The Sephirotic diagram was used to describe the path to God, and the manner in which He created the world out of nothing. The Cabbalists developed this concept into a full model of reality, using the tree to depict a "map" of creation. The Tree of Life has been called the "cosmology" of the _Kabbalah_.

Of late, some scientific quarters had stumbled upon the conceptual similarities between the Kirchner diagram and the radical Superstring Theory, which was a new cosmological model in which the multidimensional universe was made up not three but _ten unique dimensions_, all interacting like taut vibrating strings in a violin; and in addition, six dimensions were entangled as one like a braided rope.

"How did you know all that?" Misato questioned skeptically.

"Picked them up from _Nature, Scientific American… _and _The Complete Zohar,_" Ritsuko said, before she shrugged. "The last, though, it's really a big old book… I couldn't read Hebrew, unfortunately, but only the diagrams and drawings in that book are very obvious to anyone involved in cosmology."

"Okay, so what does that diagram and all the Cabbalist mumbo-jumbo has got to do with Project E and the Evas?"

"In a way… Ikari uses it as a 'map', a blueprint in which he can find out as to which direction the Evas should be evolving, and it's not as simple as from Point A to Point B."

Misato scratched her head, now that her confusion was growing. "I don't get it. Sounds too far-fetched."

"All right, I'm cutting out the bullshit," Ritsuko answered, concerned about Misato's inability to comprehend. "Let's get to the point."

"Okay."

"According to Ikari, Adam and Lilith are _not_ of this world," Ritsuko admitted. "They're aliens, really. I'm not joking this time or getting high on something."

Misato was suddenly wide-eyed. "WHAT?"

"No little green men," Ritsuko answered. "No xenomorphs, and no flying saucers either. Fact is, we're in what used to be an ancient spacecraft – the Geofront is the _spacecraft_."

"Impossible," Misato muttered.

"Notice how smooth the Geofront's dome's curvature is? Well, the margin of difference in the radii between two points of the dome is no more than 0.00001 millimeters, and in fact, some years ago the old-timers here measured its curvature with lasers as part of their site survey. No human can build a dome _that_ smooth and without any expansion gaps, reinforcement bars or special tricks, and only a very advanced civilization can create a structure like this immense – and they did it _eons ago_."

"You mean the Geofront is also _very old_?"

Ritsuko nodded. "That's right. Even the rock that consists of the main 40-meter-thick shell is of extraterrestrial origin – some of the rock sampled from the shell had ten elements that don't really belong to the Periodic Table, and when they also determined the age of the rock by carbon dating... The Geofront is more than _three billion years old_, and where it came from... We'll never know. Now how does this tie up with Adam and Lilith? This Geofront… is Lilith's _home_, and the one that blew up Antarctica... that's where Adam's Geofront used to be."

Misato suddenly coughed as if choked on her saliva; she couldn't believe what Ritsuko was saying.

"Of course, those facts aren't fit for public consumption; if we did otherwise, UFO believers would be flocking here like mad," Ritsuko quipped. "The world would've also go nuts if the truth ever gets out."

"Okay, you're damn right. This'll be just between us, okay?"

Ritsuko nodded. "I know. Don't worry about any leakages."

"Thanks," Misato said. "Another question: what does Adam and Lilith has to do with Instrumentality? And what about the Evas?"

The question was downright direct, and to Ritsuko the only answers she could bring up were enshrined in one of the 50-terabyte solid-state hard drives somewhere in the innards of the MAGI.

"Hard to say," she said, trying to figure out the right words to explain it all. "But there are _two_ ways for a Third Impact to happen."

"How?" Misato asked.

"The first way, the one that has been told you, and I hope you remember, is an Angel finally making physical contact with Adam… Or Lilith, and once that happens, every life-form in the planet, all based from Lilith, will be eliminated with an anti-AT Field, and the Angels will be the ones left on Earth."

"Doomsday…" Misato whispered, imagining how that terrible scenario would work out: total extinction.

"That's right, I'm afraid, and in case you wanted proof that such a circumstance works in that way… Tell you what, it's the Second Impact. Do you really know what happened there?"

Misato shook her head. "No. You know Father and the others in the expedition died right there."

"Well, the reason why they wound up dead is that they tinkered around with Adam," Ritsuko answered.

"I know. Dad was totally nuts about the Super Solenoid Engine. What really happened there?"

Ritsuko sighed and shook her head. "I was once asked by Ikari to watch the surveillance footage, to understand precisely what went wrong and how we have to prevent that incident from happening again. From what I could remember, the expedition group researchers had the Spear delivered from Israel days ago, and later they inserted it into Adam to see if they could examine the full functionality of the S2 Engine."

"And then…?"

"For some stupid reason, somebody in your father's team must've injected genetic material into Adam at the same time they pierced it with the Spear, which caused a destructive runaway effect and generated an anti-AT Field. Eventually this Field began to consume anything in its growing radius, including the research facility, and it spared nothing; until at some point the excess energy generated by Adam was released spontaneously, causing a massive explosion equivalent to between 200 to 500 megatons of TNT… and the rest is history. Fortunately, the Spear somehow managed to contain most of the damage by limiting the Field's spread, and right now the Spear that Rei used to kill one of the Angels is the same one that came from Antarctica."

"Shit," Misato cursed. "What about the second one? Where do the Evas fit into the picture?"

"That's what I'm thinking about, because you mentioned about nine new operational Evas. Now if they were to have their own S2 Engines, that's when we could be in deep trouble because if they replicate the exact circumstances of Second Impact, and then if the Spear makes its presence at the same time…"

At that point Misato realized who could be the next victim in that scenario. "Don't tell me Unit One could be their target," she said.

Ritsuko blinked. "Why not? It's the only Eva with an S2 Engine, of course we really have to give her great care, and… Good God," she snapped her fingers, "It makes sense. You're right, it would be logical for them to use Unit One for Third Impact… Those bastards, they're trying to bring us all down!"

"What?"

Ritsuko stood up and said, "If that's going to be the case, then we have to do something to stop it."

Misato rose to her feet, asking, "Like how?"

Ritsuko placed her hands upon Misato's shoulders. "Listen, sister," she said. "More than ever, and if that happens, it's gonna be up to Shinji and Asuka to stop these rogue Evas, or we all end up losing."

"I know, but before that we'll have to deal with the next Angel," Misato whispered.

Ritsuko blinked, withdrawing her hands away. "Angel?"

Misato nodded. "That's right. In fact, however," she said, smiling, "he _doesn't_ have to make contact with Adam."

Now Ritsuko was more surprised than ever, and both women were indeed surprising themselves a great deal for more than thirty minutes. "What? Come again?"

"Don't tell anyone."

"Again, no problem," Ritsuko promised.

"Good."

"Who's this Angel, then?"

"Kaworu Nagisa."

Those two words were enough to leave Ritsuko's mouth gaping open in total astonishment. "Shit. T… That _boy?_ The Fifth Children? Really?"

"That's correct," Misato confirmed. "Now if you're not sure, you can try asking Doctor Odani, because she's the one who managed to find out by checking his DNA sample. But don't worry, I can handle him. He's under my command now."

Ritsuko felt unsure about Kaworu's loyalties. "For whom he's working for?"

"The Committee, which I think are the same ones responsible for ordering the construction of those rogue Evas."

"Then why he's walking around?" Ritsuko asked, sounding a bit more worried. "He could do something—"

Misato cleared her throat, and said, "Kaworu swore to me that he's _not_ going to make contact with Adam because… He and Rei have fallen in love. With the capital L… and by the way, he's not going to follow the Committee's orders either."

For about twenty seconds Ritsuko was speechless, before she chuckled and then asked, "What's love got to do with this?"

Misato laughed. "Tina Turner isn't involved at all," she quipped. "Perhaps Cupid is. But seriously, I'll let you into his plan."

"What plan?"

The next thing Misato outlined Kaworu's unusual scheme, and afterwards Ritsuko commented, "He's nuts. He could do something wrong while he tries."

"He can handle himself," Misato reassured her. "If you're still not sure, I can let you talk to him. He knows what he's doing."

Ritsuko sighed, and then she checked her wristwatch. Ten minutes past twelve. "Come on, I think the Children are waiting for us to join them for lunch," she said. "We're damn late."

Misato nodded and smiled. "Okay. All right, let's go."

**

* * *

Author's Notes:** it's been more than two weeks since the last chapter, all because I had a block and at the same time found myself having too much time for work, leaving little time to write. But in that same timeframe, as part of my research I reviewed some downloaded Eva video clips to get a good grip on the seiyuu's voices, as well as the Eva-versus-Angel action.

Anyway, this latter half of this chapter took much to think of, of trying to imagine how Ritsuko and Misato could rekindle their friendship by realizing that they had much something in common such as shared danger. In this same chapter, it seems that I've let a few things out of the bag earlier than usual, but it's the part of the story. I also wanted to be a little unpredictable, with some red herrings scattered about, and I'm sure that there are some loose ends left untouched.

For some action junkies out there, you just have to hang on and wait; ditto for those hoping to catch me rendtering that (in)famous part of Episode 24; and don't worry about me losing focus on our two couples (no, make that three if we add our ACC couple in the mix), we'll see them in the next few more chapters.

Finally, there's one more thing I'd like to say: I'm dedicating this chapter to the late **Satoshi Kon** and **Melody ****Gersbach**, both of them tragically passed away a few days between them; so promising, a lot to live for, and yet all too soon.

More to come, folks.


	28. My Cup Runneth Over

Kaworu Nagisa was present among them, seated comfortably, his _sozai_ bento box was open, ready to eat, and he remembered the first time he ate with mortals; it was an afternoon like this, busy with activity and of people talking, communicating, laughing, whining, and many others in a palette of emotions, this soup otherwise known as social interaction.

He thought of something else.

Once, he knew Angels were higher than humans, powerful beings million times stronger than men, who were merely weak, mortal creatures they could crush so easily; they could make miracles or curses on behalf of their creator; they can will themselves to be anywhere and at any time; of course they have almost god-like powers, but are they happy? Contented? Pure? Perfect?

Perfection. Something that sets one apart from the rest, the one percent which mortals could do nothing but feel humbled. Yet how does the perfect being feels?

Ah, nothing. No emotions but cold, calculating logic; they couldn't speak nor see nor hear; they are indifferent to the sufferings of those below them, as they observe, disallowing themselves to interfere with the affairs of lowly creatures.

However, Kaworu knew, from his readings about the lilim's ancient perceptions and beliefs about the Angels, they were supposedly sent to the world of mortals, to intervene and help guide the lilim in times of trouble and tribulation, and only then they were called upon by a chosen few, asking for succor when those few lilim could not do the impossible.

That was, however, some millennia ago, when lilim were past their primitive origins, as they were grasping the knowledge about their world, when the only knowledge they had was that coming from nature and of things they couldn't give a satisfactory explanation. As time passed on, and exponentially the knowledge of lilim increased, slowly superstition and animistic belief began to fade away, to be replaced and relegated to history books and studies.

Now the lilim were at the prime of their knowledge, science reigned supreme, all of it accessible, readable, to be digested, then regurgitated through discussion, exchange of ideas, and then they added more books to the collective library of mankind.

Yet at what price? By knowledge men have become too powerful, but beset with more problems than they had two millennia ago, and the world had become divided, violent, and unforgiving, accursed with catastrophes by the dozen, and then became knowledge of many, in the form of breaking news alerts, a flash point every minute, men committing sins on a daily basis, some of them without remorse nor conscience.

Men had become so blind with their supposed wisdom and greed, that intervention was needed once more, to correct the errors of their ways. But in this case Kaworu was given an order from one lilim, to meddle and then punish another.

For what good?

No, nothing except they were determined to gain control of Instrumentality. But he had seen enough suffering that he made the fateful decision, and voiced it right before Misato; he had no regret, as he wanted no more to be made as a pawn.

For his heart spoke out, and what better to make the most of his existence than taking sides with those who suffered the most, those who needed consolation and even a little bit of happiness, just to ease the pain of living.

Like what he was doing right now, dining with mortals, as contact and relations the greatest happiness, for no man is an island.

"Nagisa?"

Kaworu blinked, his reverie vanished instantly. He glanced at Shinji, who broke his silence. The young man gave him a quizzical look.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kaworu said, before he smiled and picked up his chopsticks. "I had a little thought."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 28: MY CUP RUNNETH OVER  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 9/11/2010 6:57 a9/p9

_**

* * *

Ten minutes ago…**_

In the control room, Kozo Fuyutsuki and four other subordinates under his command were the only ones left, as they cleaned up their workstations, shutting down computers, packing up folders and stuffing them into briefcases. Outside, Unit-02 was being hauled back to the holding cages for her post-activity maintenance.

"Well?" Fuyutsuki asked as he instinctively swept the console with his hand. The open question was simply to hear their comments.

Natsumi Odani watched the workstation computer shut down and she said, "Talk about a miracle. None of us had ever expected to see Miss Langley do a hundred-eighty turnaround, from a convalescent to a battle-ready pilot."

"I agree," Maya Ibuki added. "I thought it would be impossible for her to get Unit Two working, but she did. I know that the last time she tried to sync, she was like trying push a boulder up a hill."

"Right," Makoto Hyuga said. "Somehow Unit Two rejected her, and do you know why? I noticed her behavior in the weeks before she tried to—"

"Don't say it," Maya warned, for she cringed every time she heard the word _suicide_. "We know that already."

"Sorry," Makoto apologized. "She was then downright angry after the Angel that attacked her somehow cut down her will to fight."

Natsumi sighed. "Eventually she became insecure," she said, "and I also noticed that every time she came close to the First Children she was avoiding her, turning away whenever she's present, and God knows what they probably argued about."

"Usually they don't say much," Shigeru Aoba commented. "Ever since we started, the Children usually tend to keep to themselves. Not until this week, however."

"That's right," Fuyutsuki concurred. "Last week, much to my disappointment, they clammed-up shut away from each other, but now, all the sudden they're talking just like kids at their age. _Like normal kids_, I mean. That's another thing to celebrate about."

Fuyutsuki now picked up his briefcase and gestured at them that it was time to go. "They're waiting for us," he added, and just as they were about to leave Misato and Ritsuko walked in.

"Oh," Fuyutsuki said. "How did it go?" he asked.

Both women nodded. "Everything's fine, sir," Misato answered. "We're back just like old times."

Fuyutsuki chuckled. "Glad to see you two together once again," he said. "Come on, the others must be waiting, and I've got to fulfill my promise."

"I beg your pardon, sir?" Ritsuko asked.

"Free lunch for everyone," Fuyutsuki answered. "It's on me."

* * *

As they were halfway to the Cafeteria, Asuka said to Shinji, "Sorry if I held this one out from you."

"About what?" the young man asked. For a second he contemplated if Kaworu and Rei were out of earshot, as the other couple walked in unison, not a word between them except for the seemingly peaceful expression on their faces.

Asuka leaned close to his ear and she whispered, "I saw Mama in the Plug."

Shinji's forehead furrowed; he couldn't believe what she was saying. "What?"

The redhead laughed. "Yes, it's true. I'm not seeing things."

"Uh… How?"

Asuka shrugged. "It was when my Eva powered down, she appeared out of nowhere. Was she a spirit living inside Eva? How that could happen?"

Shinji mulled over if it was all right for him to tell her about his own experience, a rather mixed sixteen-hour experience of self-despair (or was it the self-examination of his own weaknesses?) and then just as he was about to surrender and die, to let go and sink like a stone in a dark pond…

_"I hate this place. I don't want to be alone... anymore. The heating and the oxygen circulation are already out. I'm cold. It's useless… the suit is giving out, too. So this is the end. I'm tired... Of it all."_

_A woman appeared before him, unclothed, long hair flowing and unfurled, floating in the ether, yet despite her full figure the woman's face was obscured by the blinding light. Who was she? His mother? The Eva? He wasn't sure, but the voice somehow hit him with the realization that the voice belonged to his mother: soft, gentle, soothing, like sweet music to the ears._

_"Mother?" Shinji whispered, bewildered at the apparition._

_"Are you ready? Well, that's good for you."_

"Strange," Shinji thought aloud.

"Pardon me?" Asuka questioned.

The young man smiled. "No, I mean… You're no different from me, like what you've seen."

Asuka blinked. "You did?"

Shinji nodded. "Well… Yeah, I heard her voice."

"W… How does she look like?"

"I couldn't get close enough, no, focus enough to see if she's really Mom." Shinji then sighed. "Didn't matter much, though. I was sure it was Mom by her voice."

"Still, that was quite strange, and…" Asuka's eyes quickly flew wide, a thought bubbling into her mind. "Oh, I remember something. Like what Rei told me, when I was then angry at her."

"When?"

"About two weeks ago."

"What did she say?"

"Eva has her own mind and soul."

Shinji craned his head around for a brief glance at Rei, before snapping back his attention to Asuka. "Are you sure?" he inquired.

Asuka nodded, before she sighed pleasantly. "Yeah, she said it… and today, she's right."

The young man pondered for a moment, and he said, "Mind and soul… How can they be there in Eva?"

"I have little idea at all," Asuka answered. "All I know are the basic functions… But they're practically biological creatures, you know."

Shinji now remembered his conversation with Kaji, as the spy watered his watermelons amidst the violence being played out right before them:

"_They say that when an Angel comes into contact with Adam, sleeping underground here, all humanity will be annihilated," Kaji warned. "That cataclysm will be Third Impact, yet it can only be stopped by an Evangelion, which has the same power as an Angel."_

And then Ritsuko's admission:

"_These are dummies, and they're all parts for the Dummy Plug," Ritsuko admitted. "We humans found a god and tried to possess that power, and as a consequence the human race came close to extinction fifteen years ago. The god that they found disappeared, yet they decided to remake this god."_

"_And what's this god you're talking about?" Misato asked, as she aimed her service pistol at Ritsuko's back._

_The frustrated scientist sighed in regret. "It's Adam, and they created a humanoid from it in order to be close to godhood… That is Eva, the ones that you see often."_

"All the Evas are made from Adam," Shinji whispered. "It makes sense."

Asuka blinked. "What?"

"I thought you know…"

"No, I have no idea about that, either. What or who's Adam? Adam as in the Bible?"

Shinji shook his head. "No. I haven't seen it, but they said that's where all the Evas came from."

"When did you know all about that?" Asuka questioned. "Who told you?"

"Doctor Akagi told me a week ago, a day after Ayanami blew up Unit Zero. She invited me to see her secrets."

Asuka frowned. "Where? This is sounding weird," she said, sounding skeptical.

"It's a place called the Dummy Plug Plant. That's where they made those Plugs."

For a second Asuka craned her neck and glanced at Rei behind her. "Guess we have to keep silent," she said.

Shinji blinked. "Why?"

"Why don't we talk about it later, when we're alone?" Asuka suggested.

The young man nodded. "N… Okay," he agreed. "If that's what you want."

* * *

On the other hand, Kaworu thought of the little triumph, of being able to communicate to Unit-02's core directly and speak to its troubled soul. It gave him considerable satisfaction that it took some persuasion to make that soul, whoever Asuka's mother was, to open up her heart.

He thought about the doll she was holding, and its significance.

Was the doll a representative of Asuka? If so, maybe that was where that soul gave most of her motherly affection, something she lost a long time ago.

Now Kaworu remembered reading the dossier on Asuka and her past, in which her mother committed suicide after being involved in a test with Unit-02 resulted in a near-catastrophe.

Then he recalled something else about Keel Lorenz explaining the intricacies of the Eva's functionality, where the flawed contact experiments revealed that it was possible to manipulate or even split up souls, hence the creation of the scientific field of metaphysical biology. It also explained the presence of Kaworu's clones, and by extension, what was left of Rei's copies in the Dummy Plug Plant.

However, Keel also told him that splitting the soul of a living entity, as confirmed by the failed Eva contact experiments, will cause insanity, LCL liquefaction or even death to the test subject. The old man added that despite the loss of lives those experiments had entailed, they only served to provide additional insights to the potential power of Evas.

Kaworu then wondered what would happen if he could see into Unit-01's soul. It might be a very interesting exercise, and if possible, a nice conversation.

Now he whispered to himself, "So much to do, yet so little time."

Rei blinked. "What do you mean?"

Kaworu sighed. "Well, I was supposed to do an errand for Misato, like watering Kaji's watermelon patch… But I don't know if we could find the time to teach you how to play the violin."

"Pilot Soryu wants me to go to the library, to show some books for me to read," Rei said. "The ones she likes to read."

"What books?"

Rei was trying to remember the title of the book that Asuka mentioned, and then she said, "_Twilight._"

"What's it all about?"

"It is a story about people and creatures called vampires. I do not know what they are."

"Ah. I remember reading something else," he recalled. "I had a book called _The Divine Comedy_. It's an epic poem written by an Italian man named Dante Alighieri. I have it in my room."

Kaworu then gave Rei the basic synopsis of the story, in which Dante finds himself, with Virgil and Beatrice as his companions, on a journey to visit the three sections of the afterlife: hell, purgatory and heaven, before Dante gets a chance to see God in person.

"But to tell you the truth, it's not easy reading," Kaworu admitted. "However, the important thing is that humans have a chance to come clean and redeem themselves while still alive, that they're responsible for deciding their fate through actions and thoughts."

"Does it include 'changing the trajectory', as you said before?"

"Yes," Kaworu said, nodding. "Everyone has an opportunity to do the right thing for a very good reason."

"It seems that I still have more to learn," Rei said. "Things I still need to understand."

"But you're starting to understand, which is good for you, just as I'm trying."

"Such as…?"

"Human nature, and it's not enough for me to learn things simply by reading, watching or listening; I have to experience it first-hand."

"What is my nature, then?" Rei asked with curiosity.

"You are complex in some ways, and yet you have this simple innocence. You don't tell everyone much of what you know, or feel, but it's only your actions that makes people think what you really are."

"What about you?"

Kaworu's forehead furrowed, the question clearly aimed at him, so he sought for an answer. "I don't say much," he confessed. "As you know, I can't tell everyone else what I really am."

"That is what you are afraid of?"

"Yes," he admitted. "If I ever said to all what is my true purpose in this world and my reason to exist, it would be difficult for most humans to comprehend. Instead, as their prejudices have rendered them blind with misunderstanding, they will assume that my presence would not bring peace for them, but fear, suspicion, and loathing. Ignorance and the lack of understanding are one of the great defects of humanity, which is sad for me."

"Then what can you do?"

"Somehow there must be a way for all to open their eyes and ears, and set aside their fears. If only I could speak to the world in one voice, and if only mankind is willing to listen, then change is possible. However, they should not be simply waiting for a deity to make the change for them… It's mankind who are supposed to take action, to change the world for the good."

_**

* * *

Five minutes ago…**_

In the Cafeteria, Captain Trudy Chacon and Major Paul Nguyen were seated at the table, eating their lunch. Both were wearing flight suits instead of the usual NERV khaki uniforms, their way to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

"You still look like crap, _cabron_," Trudy commented. The whites of his eyes were pink with a slight bloodshot, as he woke up almost late with a monumental hangover.

"Yeah," Paul agreed, sounding sour. "How many shots of JD do you think I had last night?" he asked before picking up a piece of steak and popped it into his mouth. "I don't remember."

Ordering one shot of Jack Daniel's after another at the bar, Paul drank heavily in sorrow and quiet anger, in his bid to forget what happened to his Cheyenne gunship; it pained to him to see his bird destroyed by a bunch of ragtag terrorists yesterday, and after he and his co-pilot parachuted safely on the ground Paul was hopping mad, cursing the International Resistance and its founders, and went on cussing all the way from the crash site to the Geofront until he straightened himself out and shut up for the debriefing.

"Let's see… About eighteen, if I'm not mistaken," Trudy answered. On that same night, she was also there at the O-Club, only for a couple bottles of Kirin as a nightcap, and she kept an eye on the Vietnamese-American for a few hours, taking a few sips of the brew, and as the bartender noted to her that Paul was about to crash off his stool, she picked up the inebriated pilot's arm onto her shoulders and led him away to his quarters.

"My bad," Paul said, snorting. "I thought I had about thirty. Lost fucking count."

Trudy sighed. "Look, Paul, it ain't your fault losing your bird, because sometimes shit happens to all of us. The CO has just arranged to have a spare Cheyenne to be given to you later, and it should be in the hangar bay by the time we come back."

Paul nodded. "Yeah, I know all that, but One Three… Damn, she's a beaut, and I can make her dance. I know her like the back of my hand..."

One Three was the official numerical designation given to his Cheyenne gunship, just as One Six was assigned to Trudy's aircraft.

"Come on, you should let go. At least it's better to know that you're alive, and you did a shit-hot job out there yesterday. Planes are easier to replace than pilots, and we all know that."

This time Paul sighed in resignation. "All right, you win," he conceded, before he decided that it was time to shift gears for another subject. "Let's see… Now, I don't know why the hell someone wanted a piece of the Second Children right there," he said, referring to Asuka Langley Soryu. "I mean, they said the car she was riding in looked almost like pocked Swiss cheese with the bullet holes on by the time they stopped."

By now everyone heard yesterday's story of the lone Audi, which Tsutomo Kanzaki had driven with three of NERV's well-known personages as his passengers, went through the bullet-laden crucible, and lived to tell about it.

"That's right," Trudy confirmed. "Yeah, I also asked myself the same question since yesterday. There's an investigation going on, I think."

Paul nodded again. "Right," he said. "There could be a mole on the inside, someone trying to take her down. But, what gives? Why would a bunch of yahoos want her dead?"

* * *

At the same time, Tsutomo Kanzaki fell in line and ordered a bowl of braised beef and a tall glass of Coke. He'd been from the Second Section annex, in his cubicle and working on some paperwork, and then attended a briefing, with Director Hamamoto ordering them to keep an eye on the Fifth Children.

Sure, he'd seen Kaworu before, when they came to visit Asuka at the Infirmary.

Well, Tsutomo quizzed himself, what harm does a young man like Nagisa could do?

The agent shrugged his shoulders, figuring that he wasn't much sure, and once his tray was filled with food, he stopped by the cashier and paid, before he went looking for an empty seat when Trudy waved her hand for him to see.

"Hey!" Trudy hollered. "DEE KAY! Come down on here!"

Tsutomo blinked, recognizing his other nickname – Dee Kay stood for _Drift King_ – because of his superb driving skills, and then he smiled as he walked up to the two Cheyenne jocks. Trudy offered a chair and he plopped down. Placing his tray on the table, he said, "Thanks, guys. What's up for today?"

"Nothing much throughout this morning," Trudy said. "My One Six is undergoing repairs at the hangar, and Paul is due to get a spare machine to fly."

Tsutomo was curious about the slightly-haggard look on Paul's face. "Man, what happened?"

"Boozed last night at the O-Club," Paul answered. "Pissed about the fucking bastards who took down my ship."

"I see. Had a tough day and night with my, no, I mean, _we_ had our hands full of action," Tsutomo said before he spooned his braised beef and ate. "Hands in deep kimchi, with our escorts blown off, a few dead, and several in the Infirmary right now," he added.

"Yeah," Paul agreed. "At least on the bright side we had a good BDA, and we nailed them good." BDA meant Battle Damage Assessment, which was military-speak for the number of target kills, be it enemy troops, structures or vehicles.

"I heard about someone trying to take a crack at the Second Children. That true?" Trudy asked, now changing the subject.

Tsutomo nodded as he chewed and swallowed. "Damn right. He had a name, he sneaked in and tried to shoot her, but we caught and beat the living shit out of him, and just as we were about to get his ass hauled in for questioning, he offed himself with cyanide. Never got to know what he was really up to, or whom he was working with. Anyway, we're working on some evidence, and from there maybe we'll get some clues."

"Ah, I see. Anyway, yesterday you have much balls driving right down on the road," Trudy said. "Everyone's talking about you, James Bond," she jokingly quipped, before laughing.

"Thanks," Tsutomo said, smiling. "But I'm more like George Smiley," he added, referring to John Le Carre's unassuming intelligence agent.

"Well, I also saw Major Katsuragi and the Children poppin' rounds on them, too, and they ain't blasting with BB guns. How are they doing right now?" she asked.

"For security reasons we had them moved and quartered here early this morning, for we figured it wasn't safe for them to stay at that condo any longer. Now, about you two, once I have some free time tonight, we go hit the O-Club and I'll pay for the beer. Drinks will be on me, 'cause I owe you much for saving our hides." This time Tsutomo grinned like a Cheshire Cat.

"No big deal," Paul said, his face brightening up.

An idea popped into Tsutomo's brain. "Say, why don't we pull Colonel Katsuragi right with us tonight?"

Trudy and Paul blinked. "Hey, did you say _'Colonel'_?" she asked.

Tsutomo nodded. "Well, yeah. She got promoted to lieutenant-colonel last night by the Sub-Commander. Heck, she even showed me the new rank pins to prove it."

Both pilots looked at each other and then they laughed.

"What?" Tsutomo asked, as he was a bit puzzled.

"Now that she has a higher rank, should we get her invited, guess she might have to pay the tab," Paul said amusedly.

"And you'll save yourself a bundle, too," Trudy added, and then all three of them guffawed.

Just then Tsutomo noticed that people began to trickle into the Cafeteria, which then thickened until the whole place was filled with chatter. Troops were falling in line for the food, and gazing back to the door he saw the Children coming in, followed by the Sub-Commander and his subordinates.

"Looks like we have some very interesting guests, guys," Tsutomo commented as he grinned, before the entire Cafeteria exploded into congratulatory cheers and whistles.

_**

* * *

Now…**_

The Cafeteria was packed to capacity, everyone taking advantage of Fuyutsuki's one-day free lunch reward, and no doubt celebration was in the air as they chatted about the successful sync test, momentarily replacing the discussion about the terrorist attack.

At their table Fuyutsuki, naturally the superior officer, occupied one end of the table, and from the top downwards every one of them were seated according to rank and seniority; Misato, Natsumi and Ritsuko were closest to Fuyutsuki, followed by Kanzaki, Chacon and Nguyen, and then Ibuki, Hyuga and Aoba, and finally the Children at the other end.

Earlier, once gathered around the table, they made introductions, and once they sat down and ate, the officers talked about the events in the last twenty-four hours, thanked Fuyutsuki, and then congratulated Misato for her promotion.

However, Kaworu noticed that only Doctor Akagi was quietly eating as she listened, and she dared not to gaze at Rei's way, as if trying to avoid the girl's red eyes.

But he already knew why: through the memories of Shinji and Misato, Ritsuko destroyed what was left of the Rei clones, out of jealousy and hatred. So now, she feels responsible, and in a gathering like this, Doctor Akagi was in a very awkward position, forced to keep mum.

On the other hand, Rei was trying to figure out as to how she could voice her feelings towards Ritsuko. She was looking for the right words, the proper address, and the correct tone. Her main concern was the woman scientist's feelings towards her presence.

Now she made up her mind; she'll have to make it simple and direct, and so, setting aside her bowl of garlic ramen, Rei said to Ritsuko, "I have no ill will against you. I am sorry, but it is _not your fault_."

Suddenly Ritsuko became the center of attention; she was flustered, caught unawares, wondering what to answer. She tried to answer but no words came out of her mouth.

Brows furrowed among some of the adults, unaware of what occurred at the Dummy Plug Plant. Maya, Shigeru and Makoto were staring at each other, silently making guesses, before watching the two women stare at each other, waiting for the inevitable.

Inwardly Misato and Fuyutsuki braced for the worst, hoping that somehow Ritsuko could get a grip on herself. Shinji tensed, preparing to cover his eyes as if critical mass was about to explode right in front of him.

But Ritsuko shook her head. "No, Rei… No, I should apologize for what I did. I'm sorry, too."

"It would be fine," Rei answered, nodding. "I accept your apology."

"T… Thank you."

Everyone quickly made a collective sigh of relief. Misato silently applauded Ritsuko's self-restraint.

"What was that?" Maya asked her boss, blinking.

Ritsuko shrugged. "Can't say," she said. "I want it to be over with. I'll explain later, okay?"

Maya nodded.

However, Ritsuko noticed Kaworu closely for the first time, and knew why he looked so special. The dossiers on him alone couldn't do any justice.

* * *

Asuka was scratching her head, wondering what prompted Rei to speak up. "Why the apology?" she asked while staring at the girl.

"I cannot tell you right here," Rei answered. "You may not like it."

Shinji nodded. "She's right."

Asuka blinked. "What?"

Kaworu sighed and he said, "What happened down there is a very long story. We can't tell you, not until we're all alone."

"Damn," Asuka muttered. "I don't have any idea what happened while I was gone, but okay, if that's your call."

"Oh, I forgot," Kaworu blurted, and he looked at Ritsuko. "So it's you, Doctor Akagi."

Ritsuko nodded. "Yes. I've been put out to the sidelines for a while, which explains why you haven't seen me, yet I heard much about you."

"Since when and how did you know, ma'am?"

"About two days ago," Ritsuko answered. "My assistant told me about you and what you were doing here."

Maya nodded silently in acknowledgement.

"Yes, I was meant to be a substitute for Miss Langley here," Kaworu said. "But since she made her choice, I find it okay for me to see her back into piloting Unit Two."

Ritsuko frowned a bit. "So, what are you going to do here instead?" she asked.

"Well," Kaworu answered, "I want to try to help out in any way I can."

"I see. Is there anything else you wish to tell me about yourself?"

The question was the equivalent of an unexpected curve ball, and Kaworu pondered as to what he had to say. He decided on an excuse instead.

"Perhaps, Doctor, is it all right if we could discuss it later?" Kaworu suggested.

Ritsuko sighed. "Okay, if that's what you want," she said. "Why not now?"

Kaworu merely touched his forefinger to the lips. _Can't tell you._

Now the woman doctor turned her attention to the First Children, and asked, "Care to tell me what happened to you?"

"I beg your pardon, Doctor?" Rei asked.

"Yes, you got hurt a few days ago, and Miss Ibuki told me that Unit One rejected you again."

Rei took a breath and began to narrate about the incident at the Test Facility, as the others listened with great interest. By the time she was finished, Ritsuko remarked, "Well… Looks like she still doesn't really want you."

All eyes were on Rei, and she replied, "Unit One can only recognize Ikari, as I feel that she considers me as a stranger."

Shinji nodded in acknowledgment, but he added, "It's not your fault, Ayanami. It's just that she's different."

"I understand that," Rei told him. "She belongs to you."

"One thing, Rei…" Ritsuko spoke. "You said that before, you couldn't remember after Unit Zero blew up, but after Unit One rejected you… Suddenly you have your memories back. Is that true?"

Rei nodded. "Yes, that is true. How that happened, however, is beyond my understanding."

"Thought you might want to hear out my theory," Natsumi said instead.

The others blinked.

"Okay, tell me how," Ritsuko answered.

Next thing Natsumi explained her theory of the Sixteenth Angel serving as a temporary psychic and physical conduit between Unit-00 and Unit-01 during the attack, in effect causing Unit-01 to absorb much of the memories of the other Eva and its pilot. She then told about the MRI/PET scans after the aborted test, and how Unit-01 affected Rei's brain.

"That's it?" Ritsuko asked afterwards.

"It's plausible," Natsumi said, "but yesterday Colonel Katsuragi already asked Rei some questions about her past twice, and she was able to answer them."

"That's right," Misato agreed.

Ritsuko turned her attention to Rei. "Now… What about me? Do you remember a moment with me?"

Rei blinked twice, as if the question suddenly made her feel naked, unable to find an answer.

"Uh, what's wrong?" Ritsuko asked. "Something holding you back, Rei?"

"I am afraid I cannot answer them," Rei replied. "You may not like it."

Ritsuko sighed, figuring that Rei didn't want to tell everyone about their rather difficult relationship prior to Unit Zero's destruction. "Okay, I'll not bother you this time," she said.

Rei nodded. "Thank you, Doctor."

* * *

Thousands of kilometers away, somewhere in Siberia and at SEELE's covert military base, Keel Lorenz stood on the tarmac with his retinue of bodyguards, watching as a dozen massive C-21 Dragon transport gunships began to descend on the apron, their engines and prop rotors creating a monstrous racket.

The Dragons, all belonging to Global Protection Enterprises, a SEELE-owned PMC business front, were painted in "digital" low-visibility grey camouflage with RAM (radar absorbent material) coating; they were 41.5 meters long, 31.7 meters wide, and 9.22 meters high; carried four prop rotors powered by two D5 "Jimmy" turbine engines generating about 15,000 horsepower, allowing the leviathan to move forward at speeds of more than 300 knots; hardened avionics and fiber-optic "fly-by-light" flight controls; possessing the latest in composite armor to deflect or absorb enemy fire; bristling with weaponry, with point-defense Gatling gun turrets, automatic grenade launchers, 30mm autocannons, Hellfire and Maverick air-to-ground missiles, Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and an offensive EMP burst system to destroy enemy electronics; full chaff, flare and electronic countermeasures; and finally a cargo hold large enough to carry four fully-loaded Humvees or about 200 troops.

In a nutshell, the US$255-million Dragon was as fearsome as its namesake and in purpose: to destroy the enemy with fire.

Each of the Dragons extended their landing gear as they touched down, before the pilots shut off the turbines and the rotors began to wind down. Their rear ramps opened, and from there queues of heavily-armed commandoes trotted into perfect platoon-sized formations, in front of the Dragons.

In cadence and emerging from his command Dragon, Miles Quaritch marched towards Keel and saluted, before pivoting to his troops and bellowed, drillmaster-style, "ATTENTION!"

The crack soldiers stopped, parade attention, not moving an inch.

Perfect.

Colonel Quaritch now turned back to Keel and said, "As you ordered, the troops are ready for inspection."

Each of the soldiers present were in full combat gear, black BDUs (battle dress uniform) and balaclava masks, and armed with the latest in weaponry. Twenty-four hundred strong, they came from all kinds of backgrounds, but in common they were military specialists, working for the money, killing if necessary on behalf of whoever can afford their fees.

Keel nodded. "Excellent," he praised.

As both men walked before the arrayed formations, trailed by the bodyguards, Quaritch said, "We have completed our full study of the Geofront complex, and I should congratulate our little inside man for providing excellent intelligence."

"Good," Keel answered in approval, making glances at the troops. "What else?"

"Everything's ready as I promised. However, we're about to face some serious resistance down there, sir."

"Why?" Keel asked, but then he remembered the satellite surveillance photos. "Ah… Have you known about an unusual shipment that arrived there two days ago?"

Quaritch nodded. "Yes, sir. Sanderson informed me that it was an armaments shipment. He even sent me a complete list of the inventory."

Keel frowned. "So, they must have known in advance and are preparing for us."

"Damn right, and it's going to be a pisser, sir, which means that I'll need some more to bring them down."

"Like what?"

"Double the weapons, and then some armored units. Anything to kill 'em all. Perhaps, if you allow me, I'd like to add chemical weapons to completely neutralize them."

Keel murmured something too incoherent for Quaritch to hear, so instead the officer asked, "Yes?"

"Do what's necessary," Keel answered. "Forward me a list of anything you need. Money is no object in these parts, and the generals and politicians are willing to make business with us. They'll even give away a nuclear MIRV warhead if we would want it."

Quaritch grinned. "I will appreciate that, sir," he said as he lit a cigar, and then he thought of something else. "Now, there's another problem: what can we do about the Japanese government?"

"Their Prime Minister is an obtuse fool, and so is his cabinet," Keel replied. "As in the past, money is the only way to make them smart so that we can pull strings. If they don't do what we say, however, we have options to motivate those bureaucrats."

"Blackmail," Quaritch said, before pulling a drag from his Cohiba.

"But since we don't have much time, either he'll have to cooperate with us by working with your men, or if he becomes vacillating we'll have to bring down his Self-Defense Force troops as well… and one more thing."

"What?"

"As soon as we're done with this, let's break for lunch. To paraphrase Shakespeare, Colonel, your men must be fed with beef steaks and steel, to make them strong and deadly."

Quaritch nodded in approval. "Well, that makes sense, sir."

"Afterwards," Keel said, "we'll meet the Russian top brass, as they'll be here in an hour." The old man then glanced at his watch and wondered if Sanderson was keeping up to his mission objective.

_The Second Children should be dead by now_, he pondered_._

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the Cafeteria, Fuyutsuki mentioned of the gallant actions of the Cheyenne pilots, and he added, "Anyhow, your commanding officer has forwarded to me your after-action report, and recommended you two to be awarded properly."

"That's right, sir," Paul answered, and Trudy nodded.

"Very well," Fuyutsuki said. "You'll receive your new ranks later this afternoon. If it weren't for your actions, Colonel Katsuragi and the Children may not make it."

Paul and Trudy grinned in unison, and said, "Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome," Fuyutsuki answered, and then he sighed pleasantly. He wondered what else was in the agenda… and yes, Agent Kanzaki.

"Mister Kanzaki," Fuyutsuki said.

Tsutomo blinked. "Yes?"

"You'll be given the same privilege, as a token of appreciation for your actions yesterday I'll recommend to Director Hamamoto that you'll be effectively promoted to major."

The agent brightened up, as Natsumi nodded in approval. "Oh… Thanks, sir."

Trudy suddenly budged in and said to Tsutomo, "Well… looks like we're about to pack the O-Club tonight, huh?"

Tsutomo snapped his fingers. "Why not we pool everything together for a drink?" he suggested. "Heck, why don't we all of us go there tonight?"

Everyone around the table voiced their approval, anywhere from a cheerful "Yes" to a nod, yet the Children, especially Shinji, wondered if they could go despite their age.

"Uh…" Shinji mumbled, "What about us?"

Misato pointed a finger at him and answered, "Well, since we had so much shared danger, why don't you kids come along?"

Asuka blinked. "Really?"

"You're coming, and that's an order," Misato replied and then she laughed.

Kaworu and Rei were figuring out on themselves as to how they could fit in, and then the blue-haired girl said, "I cannot drink. I am not in the right age."

Misato blinked. "Oh, I forgot," she said. "Since you're a minor, it's okay that you can have a Shirley Temple, Rei."

"What is a 'Shirley Temple'?" Rei asked.

"Basically, it's a non-alcoholic cocktail," Misato explained. "Some Sprite, grenadine and then some more, but it's not going to hurt you, really. Instead, I hope you'll love it."

Rei nodded in understanding. "Thank you for clarifying. I admit that I do not understand about that as well, other than being able to make and drink tea."

Asuka smiled, as an idea came up to her noggin. "Hmmm… Hey, this sounds more like a double-date!"

"What?" Shinji blurted.

Asuka leaned to Shinji and said, "It's convenient, you know? Better than going out."

Shinji nodded. "I see… But, what I'm going to wear?"

"Don't worry about the dress code," Misato reminded him. "Anything goes, as long as it's all casual."

Now Kaworu contemplated as to what Rei could wear, as he'd seen her too many times wearing that school uniform, as it was the only outdoor clothes she had.

Then, as he glanced at Asuka, he had an idea, so he gestured at the redhead and said, "Asuka, I thought if it's all right if you could do Rei a favor."

"Yeah?" Asuka said.

"Since it seems that you and Rei are almost of the same size, why don't you borrow her something to wear tonight?" Kaworu queried.

Asuka nodded. "Ah…" she said, eyeing Rei's figure in her mind, taking tape measurements until she concluded that her body size was no different as the First Children. Good.

"Okay," the redhead agreed and she faced towards Rei and added, "I'll lend you some of my casuals, and... since you have little regard for the red colors, I have a spare white shirt, so I'm sure they'll fit you right."

Rei nodded. "Thank you," she answered.

Asuka smiled. "You're welcome."

* * *

While the rest ate and talked, Fuyutsuki pondered what Gendo was doing right at this very moment. Watching them perhaps, from the view of one out of several thousand surveillance cameras? Or simply passing the time by thinking of the past?

The former professor then eyed Kaworu for a while, and trying to guess about that young man's motives. Of course, Kaworu was an Angel, and yet judging from his and Misato's calm demeanor as they came back to the control room, it seems that they somehow agreed on a deal.

What deal?

But whatever Kaworu and Misato had discussed in between, Fuyutsuki hoped that Kaworu had enough sense not to contact Adam, and besides, he was well aware that the Fifth Children was also being watched, as he stole a glance at the overhead surveillance camera right on top of them.

On the other hand, what about the Committee, and what are they doing today? And what other plans do they have set in motion? At any rate, with the critical information that Misato gave to him, what he feared for long was steadily coming, the clock ticking away the seconds.

Time for a judgment call, and he took a breath.

"Colonel," Fuyutsuki said. "Doctor…"

"Yes?" Misato asked.

"What is it, sir?" Ritsuko queried.

"After we get finished with this," Fuyutsuki said, "I have something very important to discuss with you people, yet it's too sensitive."

Ritsuko and Misato nodded, but Fuyutsuki also fingered Natsumi and Tsutomo.

"You two, I also need your presence," the old man said.

"I'll come, sir," Tsutomo answered.

"It's your call, sir," Natsumi replied.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Good," he said. "I also need some additional input from you three, Ibuki, Aoba and Hyuga."

The junior officers all said, "Will do, sir."

Shinji blinked, wondering what the Sub-Commander had in mind. "Uh… Sir," he said. "What's going on?"

Fuyutsuki sighed. "I'm sorry, son, but I'm not in liberty to tell you."

Shinji looked disappointed. "But…"

Misato shook her head. "I suggest you Children will have to make the most of your free time throughout this afternoon. There's nothing much on schedule, but I'll tell you later what else we could do, okay?"

The four Children nodded.

* * *

Several floors up, in his office, Gendo Ikari glanced at the video monitor showing him one of the hundreds of surveillance cameras placed across the Geofront complex. At the moment, this one camera feed was located in the Cafeteria, locked onto Kaworu Nagisa's face. He could see him talking, gesturing and while eating.

He tried to imagine what this young man was thinking of, and what he was up to.

Gendo, typing a few commands on the keyboard, had the camera swivel a few degrees further, the lens now focusing this time on Ritsuko Akagi.

As he stared at the woman's face, his forehead furrowed, trying not to remember the moments he had with her. Instead, if in case should she does anything wrong once again, he had little qualms about taking her away for good.

All for the plan, as long as he needed to be in total control.

Gendo sighed, and he told himself almost quietly, "I'm doing all this for you, Yui… and I regret nothing."

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **I confess one of my problems: lately my work as a household manager (that's a politically-correct term for my current position as a caretaker) IRL has made it difficult for me to write, and most of the time, at the end of the day I become so drained that by the time I sit down before the screen I become drowsy, almost falling asleep on the keyboard... So I should instead take a nap in the afternoon, and then have enough energy to write for about two hours a night.

Oh well… I'm looking forward to the day when I can have a balanced life, where I call the shots, instead of the other way around.

By the way, comments and criticisms are still welcome, and if you see anything wrong, drop me a line and I'll try to fix it.

Until then, see you at the next chapter (winks).


	29. Afternoon Secrets

_**Warning:**__ as this story interprets certain aspects of Eva canon (spoilers!), for further clarification of some of the subjects discussed in this chapter, it is recommended to visit wiki (dot) evageeks (dot) org._

* * *

Gendo Ikari pored over the reports concerning the current status of the Evas in the cages: after the failed compatibility test days ago, Unit-01 was completely repaired and readjusted; meanwhile Unit-02, having returned to her cage after Asuka's successful first sync test since her recovery, was currently under standard maintenance.

The bearded Commander nodded in satisfaction as he set them down on his desk, before he picked up Director Hamamoto's report, and began reading; it concerned the possible collusion between the Fifth Children and the remaining infiltrators.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, there's a good reason we're all here," Fuyutsuki began, using the cadence of a college lecture, and yet with a sober tone, as his subordinates under his command were all seated around the conference table.

Earlier, as they were leaving the Cafeteria, they thanked the two Cheyenne pilots for joining them, and then told the Children to spend the rest of the afternoon as they freely wished. Fuyutsuki then led them to this conference room down at Level B-20. Before they talked, Fuyutsuki ordered Tsutomo to do a bug sweep around the room, before the agent proclaimed the room clean enough for them to begin the meeting.

The former professor of Metabiology sighed, and then he continued, "Like me, some of you are very privy to the fragments of secrets that lie here in the last fifteen years; some of you aren't aware of their existence, and some of you haven't even bothered to ask, not until now. The last, of course, is because your security clearance restricts only to what you were fed with."

Fuyutsuki's gaze slowly wandered, looking into the faces of Misato, Ritsuko, Maya, Natsumi, Shigeru, Makoto, and Tsutomo; they were all listening, as their interest was heightened with the urgency of the increasingly dire situation they were also in.

"Now, I'm prepared to tell you secrets that no one, including you, knows." Fuyutsuki cleared his throat, and went on, "I apologize to say this, but in our foolish curiosity, we have opened Pandora's Box, and because of that and of one man's desire, we've put humanity at its greatest danger than any point in history. So it's essential that we must shed light to the threats we're facing at this moment."

The old man then turned to Misato, and he requested, "First, Colonel, I would like you to explain about your inquiries regarding the Fifth Children."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 29: AFTERNOON SECRETS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 9/17/2010 22:30 a9/p9

* * *

"So, you two are going to the library?" Kaworu asked Rei, who had Asuka by her side. They were all hanging around at the hallway, right in front of a bank of elevators while people streamed in and out of the Cafeteria.

The blue-haired girl nodded, and Asuka answered, "Yeah, she's interested in reading something new, so I'll borrow a book or two there."

Kaworu turned to Shinji and he suggested, "Why don't we wait down at the baths?"

"Okay," Shinji agreed. "Is it perhaps you have something to tell me?"

"Yes," Kaworu said before both boys turned their attention to the girls and he added, "Guess we'll see you later, right?"

"Yeah, but oh," Asuka said. "Shinji, do you have a cellphone?"

Shinji nodded as he felt for the cellphone in his pocket. "Yeah, I have it just in case."

"I'll call you once we're done, okay?" Asuka said as she leaned to Shinji and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Gotta go," she added happily, before both girls walked away and entered one of the elevators. Once Asuka pressed one of the buttons and the doors closed on the girls, only then Kaworu led Shinji to another waiting elevator. He pressed the button for the ground floor, and the steel doors closed shut.

As their elevator lurched upward, Kaworu said, "I've been waiting for this chance."

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, I have the same feeling… I wanted to ask a lot of questions about you."

"Like what?"

"I really wanted to know why you're here, and what you're up to."

Kaworu nodded. "Well, it seems that you're not the only one trying to get some answers from me," he said. "Misato, Ayanami, and Asuka asked me the same questions."

Shinji frowned. "Sorry, but I'm… No, everyone's just curious. It's because… You don't seem to talk about yourself."

"It's because I don't want to draw too much attention to myself. Today's an exception, however, so I'm giving you a chance." Kaworu then smiled.

"Okay," Shinji agreed, and then the elevator doors opened, along with a chime.

* * *

Back at the conference room, Fuyutsuki asked Misato, "Do you have the files?"

Misato nodded. "Yes, sir, it's with me," she said, fishing out a very small flash memory card and pulled a notebook computer close to her. She then plugged the card in and the computer read off the contents. As the computer was hooked to a projector, Misato selected the video output to that device.

"Now, first of all," Misato said, "I want to make clear that ever since he arrived here, I harbored suspicions about the Fifth Children, especially his sketchy background, and so I made a personal inquiry regarding his true background. In the process, Doctor Odani discovered that, through DNA analysis…"

She then loaded a file containing the results of the DNA analysis, and added, "Kaworu Nagisa… is an Angel."

Gasps of astonishment were uttered as the projector showed the report onscreen. By merely looking at the colored lines, Kaworu's DNA sequence matched that of several Angel DNA sequences.

"I'm sorry," Misato apologized, "but it's true, and as you can see, this is our proof."

From there, Misato and Natsumi explained to the rest about their explosive discovery.

* * *

As he walked with Shinji, heading towards the public baths down the near-empty hallway, Kaworu thought of the first time he was able to shake Ritsuko's hand back at the cafeteria, and he saw what was inside her soul and thoughts: on one hand she was a troubled woman, have lived a past where she was a prisoner of her mother's shadow; all her adult life was devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, with an urge to continue her mother's work, but in doing so she paid the price by surrendering her body to the Commander.

In his mind's eye he saw the Commander right on top of her, and saw his bearded face in the near-dim light; could smell the sweat during copulation; felt the pain of being interfaced with an organic plug, and even the sounds of moaning.

Kaworu blinked again, and this time she was in a holding cell, in despair, crying and cursing, wishing to die before the Commander appeared again, cold and unfeeling. Then there was the bitter exchange until the man slapped Ritsuko across the face.

But then he flipped the pages of memories backwards and saw her eating breakfast with what he presumed to be her mother, unhappy and somber, and that woman told Ritsuko to be careful with men, as a cat curled around her leg.

There were other flashes of memories, of Ritsuko in high school, in a quiet classroom and seated behind her desk, her eye lazily gazing at a pretty girl with shoulder-length hair, momentarily distracted from solving an algebra problem on her quiz sheet. For a brief moment she expressed her desire by squeezing her thighs and sighed. The next thing Ritsuko was in the bathroom back at home, her fantasies running wild and focused on the same girl as she rubbed herself.

Kaworu pulled the memories around, and he went through her lifetime's worth of knowledge, all the secrets of NERV and even its predecessor, GEHIRN. Flashes of images came in succession: the MAGI and its inner workings, the Evas, the Dummy Plug Plant with its floating copies of Rei; the multitude of bioengineering papers, medical profiles, lines of programming code, coffee and cigarettes…

And he saw Lilith, nailed to the cross, above a lake of LCL, waiting patiently for her time to come.

"Nagisa?" Shinji asked, snapping out his mind. "You look like you're zoned out again. What's wrong?"

This time they were standing before the door leading to the public baths, and nobody was around. Kaworu blinked twice and he said, "I apologize if I had so many thoughts to deal with."

* * *

"I know her damn well," Colonel Miles Quaritch commented to Keel Lorenz as he looked at several pictures of Misato. Both of them were standing in a dimly-lit briefing room, before a huge flat-panel display, and at the moment, they were reviewing all the dossiers on the key figures in the NERV hierarchy.

Earlier they conferred with the Russian top brass, arranging for extra military support for the upcoming invasion. Eventually they left the meeting with complete satisfaction that the Russian military were willing to help, at a surprising bargain fee of around US$3 billion dollars, which was small fry for Chairman Lorenz.

"When?" the old man asked as he adjusted his visor. "I hardly recall anything about you involving that woman."

"Sir, I once used to be her combat instructor, at our training center in Stuttgart about five years ago," Quaritch recalled. "In my class, she was quite a fast learner… and had those brass balls that she could've put Demi Moore to shame," he remarked, referring to the movie _G.I. Jane_.

The Colonel then pointed out Misato's military qualifications onscreen, where she had brown-belt aikido certification, excellent marksmanship with all weapons, and advanced infantry training; despite the grueling, two-month training regimen under Quaritch's instruction, Misato eventually finished third in a platoon class of forty, the only woman among those hard men.

"That woman is very competent," Keel said. "Ikari may be negligent in many ways, but we should not underestimate her resolve and leadership abilities."

"Well, sir, she tried to kick my ass back then," Quaritch commented, remembering how he once defeated her on the aikido mat after three grueling rounds. "Yet I'll never know if she can win this time."

Quaritch could imagine the curves of her lithe body, hidden by the combat fatigues she wore while at training, guessing just how a woman like Misato Katsuragi could take a lot of hurting damage and yet keep on ticking, even laughing and singing video karaoke while holding an impossibly huge mug of beer at the local tavern; must be her past experience of surviving Second Impact, and so close to Ground Zero. That alone was enough to add some more brick behind that woman's sexy veneer.

"It's too bad that sooner or later once we meet again, I'll have to kill her," he remarked.

"Any regrets?" Keel asked.

"No, sir," Quaritch said, shaking his head. "Absolutely not. Like most of my dealings, or my affairs with women, it's all business as far as I'm concerned."

* * *

With the spa all to themselves, both boys disrobed, a meter away from each other, as they stored their clothes into lockers. Shinji was trying not to get too much of an eyeful of his body, but Kaworu was perfect with every inch of alabaster-hued, blemish-free skin, like a living sculpture of some young Greek god. Oddly enough, he had no body hair whatsoever, while Shinji was growing a bit of such hair at this developing age.

He hoped not to have too much facial hair, so as soon as he could see the first stubble on his chin he will have to shave it off _immediately_; he hated the terrifying idea of waking up one day to find himself staring back at his father in the mirror.

Kaworu noticed the other boy's glance. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Shinji blinked. "No… Nothing," he stammered, blushing as he turned away.

"Anyway, since you're a bit shy, why don't you go first?" Kaworu suggested.

"Okay," Shinji agreed as he walked out of the dressing room towards the washing section. Once there he sat down on a stool, took a ladle of the warm water and splashed it over his body, a surprisingly comfortable sensation.

Then Kaworu came out and sat on another stool and did the same ritual. As he washed himself he remarked, "I'm glad that finally I get to talk to you in this way."

"Why?"

"I have a lot of things I want to say, things I want to get off my chest. Besides, I wanted to make sure we're just the two of us in here."

Shinji nodded as he put away the ladle. "Me too. Been waiting to talk to you, and I'm anxious to ask."

"I see," Kaworu understood as he waded down into the warm pool of water. Shinji followed suit, yet with a small towel covering his family jewels. He sighed in pleasure, as the water was real comfortably warm. He was sure it would also take away some of his frustrations.

Shinji asked, "Now, where were you yesterday while we were stuck in trouble?"

Kaworu submerged himself a bit into the water for a moment, and then he ran a hand over his hair, water dripping away. "I was with Rei in her flat as she invited me for tea. Had some quiet time."

"Oh, that's true?" Shinji asked.

"Yes. Really got to know each other."

Shinji chuckled. "Sounds more like a date."

"I don't know, but perhaps close enough to what Asuka told me," Kaworu admitted.

"Ah, she explained to you what a date is?"

"Yes, after I confessed to her that I don't understand about it," Kaworu said. "Oh, can you tell me again what happened yesterday?"

"Okay," Shinji said before he narrated his version of yesterday's events on the road through hell. The ambush, and then the shootout and the chase, before the gunships swooped down and finished the baddies.

"…and because Asuka was angry at me," Shinji continued, "I had no choice except to shoot; I got real angry. But deep inside, I felt guilty about killing people."

"Why?" Kaworu asked.

"I… I'm afraid of someone looking me down and say that I am a murderer. Do you think I was doing right? I don't know, but I had to fight and I don't want to see Asuka or Misato hurt or… even killed."

"Does this dilemma trouble you so much? It's always human nature to deal with the dangers of his environment or his fellow man, and such situations cannot be avoided altogether."

"How so?"

"Human history is mostly shaped through violence, for a lot of reasons. Some wanted change, others wanted to erase an ugly blemish, and still there are some who use violence as an excuse. In your case, it's a matter of survival, and who gets to win in the end because you are probably mindful of the lives of those closest to you. In danger and in fear, it becomes imperative to let go of moral questions over the use of drastic measures, especially the use of violence."

"So you think I was right?"

"Yes and no. No because killing is an offense defined in many religions, going against the grain of goodness and ethics, a regression to ancient instinct of fear. On the other hand, it's a yes because you need to defend what you value, and for the sake of your survival. In a way, it's a double-edged sword."

Shinji sighed. "Strangely, afterwards I had little guilt about it," he said. "We didn't even mention during last night's dinner, as if it was perfectly normal. It's all because Asuka told me why I should not feel guilty, and she thought I was like an army recruit on his first battle."

"I see," Kaworu agreed.

"Well, isn't it true that someone said that violence can only be used as a last resort?" Shinji questioned.

"That could be right. I believe it's only used when negotiations or pleads for peace fail. Considering history, some people do not want to go that way because of fear."

Shinji nodded. "So in that case, I think I did the right thing, as I had no choice in the matter, and also I had to live with the decisions I make."

"But still… Regarding fear, I'm still concerned about how do you behave, and how do you get along with people."

Shinji suddenly frowned. "I'm doing well now; I've settled my problems with Asuka, Ayanami and Misato, and even you, but you think is there still a problem with me?"

"Let me tell you this," Kaworu said. "Back before I came here, you go to such extremes to avoid first contact. Are you afraid of connecting with other people?"

"I don't know… But I'm doing the right thing," Shinji answered.

"If you don't get close to others," Kaworu spoke, "you'll never be betrayed and you'll never hurt everybody else. But it'll be hard for you to forget loneliness. Humans can never banish their loneliness completely, because being human means being alone. But humans are able to go on with their lives because they're able to forget it every so often. Can you imagine that?"

Images flashed before Shinji's mind, matching a face with each sentence; his father, Rei, Asuka and Misato. Betrayal. Loneliness. Pain. Sorrow.

"The people I love sometimes need me the most," Shinji said. "I don't want to spend too much time being alone. I've changed, and so are the others."

Kaworu shook his head. "You're still vulnerable, Shinji. There's something inside you that could give way to weakness and pain, and therefore you feel as if you're suffering under duress, and you cower away from an insult. Fear is also your worst enemy, and it could blind you."

Shinji said nothing, having no more to answer.

"I have to admit to you that, honestly, because you're so alone, and since I first came here I became concerned about your plight, more so considering that everyone here has placed their hopes upon you. I really care about you as if you're my younger brother."

"Why it has to be me?" Shinji asked, blinking. "You call me a 'younger brother'?"

Kaworu smiled. "In a way, yes, it's true. I was hoping that you could at least understand what others think of you, and maybe some of them try to help you out, including me and your friends. You're doing right, but I was wondering how long you could keep it that way."

"I don't want to go back to where I used to be," Shinji answered. "I don't want to be like my father."

Kaworu sighed, pondering. "There's something else I wanted to ask," he said. "You may not like it but I ask you this: what would you do if you were betrayed? Or someone lied against you? What would you do?"

Shinji had a double-take. "I… I don't know. Maybe it depends on who's betraying or lying at me."

"But then, what if the betrayal or the lie is severe, so severe that it would even cost a life or many lives?" Kaworu questioned.

Shinji hung his head, trying to think before he said what he thought was the best answer. "I guess… I think I would get back at the liar or the traitor, because he's responsible for making me do what I don't want to do."

"And what if it's too late?"

The Third Children clenched his teeth, apparently frustrated and uncomfortable. "I'll blame myself for believing in the lie," he replied. "I would feel responsible for that mistake."

_This is __far enough,_ Kaworu thought, concerned with Shinji's growing discomfort. "Okay," he said. "I'm giving you a reprieve."

Shinji blinked. "What?"

"I think you're too tired to guess what better you could do to make your own life decisions," Kaworu answered. "I'm asking such questions because, who knows when the time comes someone could wrong you, and you would have to try to decide how best to deal with such situations. You've got to be strong, but think about it."

"My father betrayed me," Shinji admitted, looking angry.

"Why?"

"He lied!" Shinji exclaimed. "I was asked to come here, and I thought my father wanted me this time… after all those years we were apart. I thought I could just watch, be at the sidelines, and I thought he could be a good father just as I hoped him to be. But, no, he wanted me to pilot Eva; he never told me why, but just ride in and kill that Angel! At the time I couldn't understand completely that by the time I was done killing, I was mad at him for lying that I had to run away, run away from everyone here. I didn't want it then, I hated the experience… and I saw what was behind Unit One's face; I felt responsible for someone's pain, I was angry and ashamed at myself."

Shinji took a breath. "But then, I couldn't escape; there was no other place to go, and so I returned. Why? After I rescued them from trouble, two of my pals understood what I was going through, saw what I'm truly am, and why I was crying right in the plug."

He saw Misato in his mind. "And her, Misato. Perhaps she's the only one I think was family for me. Close to home, yet better than having nothing at all. I saw her true self, and perhaps she saw what I am, and we understood. Same thing with Asuka just yesterday; saw beyond her façade, saw what she went through…"

The Third Children glanced up at the painted depiction of Mount Fuji on the wall before them. "Now if only… If only Father could just snap out of his damn selfishness a long time ago, then my life would've been different; I wouldn't have to be living a lie, watching innocent people hurt or die. But he can't change. Never."

Kaworu pondered on much of Shinji's admission, and then said, "So what are you going to do with such a difficult situation?"

Shinji sighed and he shook his head. "I'll have to live with it, I suppose. Do my best to survive, whether my father cares about me or not. I'm doing it for the people I truly cherish because the true friends I have are the ones who gave me a side of themselves, and they, in turn, saw a side of me."

"Does that mean there are no lies?"

"No. Me, Misato, Asuka… Ayanami. I think we have finally understood each other, and so I trust them."

* * *

In the library, Asuka and Rei were walking through several aisles of shelves, looking for the book she wanted to show. The library, with more than 10 kilometers of shelving, filled mostly of scientific and research material necessary for NERV, but it also had other general interest articles, including fiction for entertainment, to reflect the organization's self-sufficiency. Indeed, two aisles had its stock of paperback fiction; another had at least three shelves of manga. At the moment, this section was filled with off-duty personnel browsing through the publications, at least two young men almost loudly debating the merits of the latest issue of _Naruto_, and the girls had to nudge through, whispering excuses.

"Ah, here it is," Asuka finally said as she pulled the hardbound book away from the shelf, and handed it over to Rei. The blue-haired girl stared at the cover, blinking as she read the kanji on it, as it was the Japanese version of the novel:

_Twilight – __by Stephenie Meyer_

"What do you think?" the redhead asked almost quietly.

"It looks… interesting," Rei said.

Asuka grinned. "Heck, it'll be a lot more interesting once you read it. Know why?"

"Why?"

"Well, you and Kaworu are no different from the characters in that story," Asuka said. "I saw parallels, and I thought you're a bit like Bella because you have little idea about Kaworu."

Rei couldn't say anything, as she held on to her and Kaworu's promise to keep his true identity a secret.

"Who is Bella?" Rei asked.

"She's the heroine," Asuka answered. "And, oh, the hero's Edward Cullen, but I can't tell you much about what he is; I don't want to spoil you the details, you know, not until you read."

Rei blinked, quite unsure. "Is this Edward the same as Nagisa?"

"He's a mystery," Asuka answered.

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't tell much about himself."

"I do not want to ask him either," Rei replied. "I prefer to respect his wishes."

"Thought I would like you to answer this," Asuka said, before she sighed. "Tell me, do you really love him?"

"Who?" Rei questioned, "Is it Ikari or Nagisa?"

"Kaworu," Asuka corrected her.

Rei sighed, nodding softly. "Yes, I do."

"I know, but how _much_ do you love him?"

This time Rei tried to find the words to describe her thoughts, and she said, "I am lonely. I have nothing. I do not have anything except my purpose, which is to serve as a pilot… But that was before he came into my life. I love him now because he helped me when I had none, when I was weak, and when I thought I was only expendable."

"Expendable?"

"I do not want to be expendable," Rei continued. "Through Nagisa, I found my self-worth and I realize the meaning of my life, and how I should live it."

The redhead sighed. "Just a little like me."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Kaworu told me why I should value my life, and he was right. It ain't living if I were to keep on building the walls around me, which is why I'm this open today. So I wondered how long your relationship with Kaworu could last."

"I hope it should last as long as we live," Rei answered.

Asuka smiled. "Yeah, it should be, and you're really lucky it's your very first."

"But… There is a problem."

The redhead blinked. "Why, what's wrong?"

Rei looked doubtful this time, as she held the book to her bosom. "I am very much afraid for what would happen to him at any time soon. I also fear for his life."

Asuka frowned. "How… No, why?"

The blue-haired girl's head bowed in commiseration. "Like me, he is also a servant, but… expendable."

* * *

"…and that's how his sequence matched up," Natsumi said, concluding her presentation of their investigation on Kaworu Nagisa. It took ten minutes to explain how Kaworu's DNA had the components of a signature Angel DNA structure, by matching the bases to another.

"Any questions?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko showed an upraised finger. "Yes, Odani… Tell me, how did you manage to get a hold of his DNA?"

"Because his blood sample was insufficient," Natsumi replied, "I decided to sneak into his room, took a lock of that boy's hair and did a more thorough analysis."

"I see," Ritsuko agreed. "Any possible impurities?"

Natsumi shook her head. "No, absolutely not. This was a pure sample, and I handled it using standard procedures."

"What are we going to do with him, then?" Maya asked.

"He agreed to me not to make contact with Adam," Misato answered. "I think he would keep his promise as long as nothing bad happens to Rei. However, should he break his promise, we'll have no choice except to use Eva against him."

"Wait a minute… What does the First Children has to do with him?" Makoto asked.

"You may find this unusual, but they're in love," Misato answered.

"What?" Maya blurted.

Misato shook her head. "I'd like to explain how they hit it off, but it's a long story."

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat, as if it was a signal that it was his turn to take the stage. "Now that our suspicions about this boy have been put to rest," he said, "we have another issue with his employers; they've sent him here to test us…"

"To see if we're vulnerable," Tsutomo added.

"I'm afraid you're correct, Captain," Fuyutsuki said. "Although we don't know for sure how they persuaded him to follow their orders, it's clear that they have hostile intent against us because, I'm sorry to say, our Commander has deviated from their plans, and Kaworu Nagisa is their supposed debt collector."

"Why?" Shigeru asked.

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "In the execution of the Human Instrumentality Project, his plan is different from theirs… So now is the right time that in order to prepare you all, I must explain the true purpose of Instrumentality."

* * *

Both of them still in the water, after a few minutes of silence Shinji felt it was his turn to change the subject and ask, wanting to know more. "I haven't asked you this, but it seems that all the while you were here, why don't you tell me who you really are?"

"Why?" Kaworu asked.

"You seem to know me so much, even know the two girls, and yet… I don't understand why you can't tell me who and what you are. Even where you came makes me wonder about it. Are you hiding something from me?"

"Well…" Kaworu shook his head. "I can't tell you too much, really."

"What's the big deal?"

Kaworu shook his head. "All I know is that I was an orphan, but adopted by a professor and he took care of me. I lived a sheltered life, and then he told me that I was chosen and must pilot an Eva.

"For most of my life, I lived alone with him and he's the only one around whom I could talk to. When the day came I was to be assigned here, that's when it was time to experience something new. I wanted to find new friends, more people to talk with. I want to feel something more, understand and discover.

"Now… since you seem to be suspicious about me, let me tell you: I came here to help in good faith, not just as a pilot as if I wanted to prove something in that part, and that's not what I aspire for."

Kaworu sighed. "You know, I realize that after all those days of being here, there's meaning for me, a purpose, almost just the same way as you do."

"What's that?" Shinji wondered.

"Oddly, I felt as if I was born and destined to meet you."

"Speaking of being here," Shinji said, "Before, I used to enjoy myself peacefully with my uncle and aunt. Nothing eventful, just ordinary days, so I had little to do except to exist; I thought it to be fine for me."

"So, in a sense, you wanted to be lonely?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know, but you came here and changed things. You taught me to see things in a different light, and I'm still trying. Yet some things don't change for me."

"Like what?"

"I'm still angry at my father for putting me in here in the first place, but considering Asuka and Misato, and maybe Ayanami, I thought otherwise because I didn't want to leave them behind. It's only my father who let me down."

The Third Children suddenly blinked. _Why I'm talking about this to him? _

"Strange," Kaworu muttered, thinking of Rei. "You believe that your father's close to Ayanami, right?"

Shinji nodded. "Well, yeah, it's supposed to be that way, but why did you ask?"

"Have you noticed that lately they're rarely seen each other, or even together?"

Shinji shook his head. "It's because you're with her more often, I think."

"It's not that," Kaworu corrected. "I think he almost forgot her."

"What?"

"Maybe it's his work or something that kept him distracted."

"I remember that two nights ago, Misato told me that her father, just before he died, acted in such a way because of his work. Now if he weren't so selfish… I was hoping that Father was a better person."

"I see," Kaworu figured. "I think that once I became Ayanami's companion, in effect I was her substitute for your father, and because of that..."

Shinji shrugged. "I have nothing against you about being Ayanami's boyfriend," he said before chuckling. "You said something to her, right?"

"Right, I did," Kaworu said. "We even kissed."

"How did you two managed to hit it off… Uh, first base?"

"That's why I must tell you," Kaworu said. "You see, in the few days I was stuck with Ayanami because the Commander—your father—asked her to be with me. I was with her when she admitted being helpless and unable to remember; I was there when she was hurt in the compatibility test; and I was even keeping an eye on her at the Infirmary.

"All along my feelings towards her had grown, especially as I'm concerned with the pain she went through. In those days I felt I was obliged to protect her, to take care of her, and to teach her that there's something more to what she could be. I regard her more as a person than being someone expendable."

Shinji thought of the disintegrated copies of Rei down at the Dummy Plug Plant, and then remembering how many times he saw Kaworu sticking with her ever since they collided in the hallway.

"In response to her pain, I reciprocated; I did the best I could to open her heart, and she did. So, before I kissed her I finally admitted my feelings. In her heart she needed something to make her whole, and I gave it. In turn I was changed and saw an entirely different perspective. For the whole time being with Ayanami, without realizing it I saw what love meant for me, and it couldn't be simple as reading it from a book; it must be experienced personally."

Kaworu sighed. "I don't know, but this might be the best thing I ever done in my whole life."

Shinji smiled. "In my case," he said, "it's different between me and Asuka. Somewhere we understood each other, as our sad experiences seem to put us in the same path. My mother's gone and so does she; we had fathers who care much less; we had our fears, and we were then trying to run away from something we didn't like to confront.

"Asuka finally understood, just as she was about to leave. She didn't want to lie any further as all that posturing does nothing except to confuse things; because of her past, she simply admitted having true feelings for me, even if I was sometimes a frightened person; whenever I was in a tight squeeze, she would give me a push, badger me to get a grip just like when I had to shoot back."

The Third Children sighed. "Well, all in all, for some odd reason we were meant to be together. That's why we said 'I love you' to each other: we finally understood ourselves."

Kaworu nodded. "You're right," he said.

* * *

"What is the meaning of _Instrumentality_?" Fuyutsuki asked them all, as he wrote down the word on the whiteboard behind him and encircled it.

"Isn't it supposed to be the new age for humanity?" Maya queried.

"That is what it claims to be, but…" Fuyutsuki shook his head, and added, "It's really different. In fact, I have studied this myself for years and, suffice to say, that Instrumentality means forcing a form of reversed evolution upon all life on Earth."

A round of gasps came from his audience as he briefly explained the basics: the Human Instrumentality Project is the forced evolution of humanity through bringing about Third Impact under the control of anyone who wields the necessary ingredients for its fulfillment. As a result, all Lilin souls would be gathered into Lilith's Egg and united as one being. This would create an existence where nobody existed singularly, but merely as part of the whole.

In Instrumentality, the flaws in every living being would be complemented by the strengths in others, thus erasing the insecurities in people's hearts.

"Hence," Fuyutsuki concluded, "Once that happens there will be nothing left to exist and live, except for humanity and all life reduced into a single form."

"What single form?" Aoba questioned.

Ritsuko stood up and said, "I'm afraid that he's right. Based on some information obtained and studies made about fifteen years ago, what happened during Second Impact can be repeated soon with a Third Impact, should we fail our objective of eliminating the Angels. Actually, there are different scenarios that can arrive to that same conclusion, but first, I'd like to get you down to the basics, which could take some of our time."

The woman then walked up to the whiteboard and scribbled the word "Angel", and added a leading arrow and the name "Adam".

"This is the original what-if, which we're trying to prevent. To refresh your minds, an Angel, once it makes contact with Adam, will cause Adam to generate an anti-AT-Field that can eliminate any life on the planet. Now, I have to correct a fallacy that's been around for too long."

Ritsuko picked up an eraser and wiped Adam off, before writing the name "Lilith" on the board.

Half of her audience blinked, for they never heard of Lilith's existence.

"What we have here, down beneath our feet, is Lilith," Ritsuko said, and from there she explained about Lilith's existence; the extraterrestrial origins of the Geofront, which was really called Lilith's Egg; and then she went on to elucidate as to why there were two Angels on Earth.

"It was theorized that these Eggs were built by an unknown civilization with technology beyond our reckoning, and they were intended to be used for panspermia; presumably as an experiment, they sent these Eggs to propagate life, finding suitable planets.

"Now, how Lilith came here? According to theory, Adam was the first to be here, but Lilith's Egg, supposed to be en route to another planet, was unexpectedly pulled into Earth and crashed, causing what is called a 'First Impact'.

"This First Impact jumpstarted all life to flourish from Lilith, but the Spear of Longinus prevented Adam from trying to accomplish its intended mission."

"So, they carry the Spear all the time?" Makoto asked. "What happened to her Spear?"

"Yes, I think, and yes, she did," Ritsuko answered. "The Spear acts as a security device to keep Lilith and Adam, both being Progenitors of Life, under suspended animation. Now, in this case, the crash caused Lilith to lose the Spear securing her, and thus initiating the creation of life.

"Now, fast-forward to some twenty years ago, when an expedition team discovered Adam and the Spear in Antarctica, both of them intact. The first thing afterwards was to study Adam in secret, and they later found out that Adam possessed a Super Solenoid Engine."

"Which, I'm sorry to say, was what my father went after," Misato added.

Ritsuko nodded in acknowledgement. "That's right," she agreed. "Doctor Katsuragi was then trying to find alternative sources of energy, and came upon the S2 Theory, in which he proposed a perpetual machine capable of generating infinite amounts of power."

The S2 Engine Theory was advocated by Dr. Katsuragi, and Ritsuko explained it: as the world (and the universe) was formed with spirals, the engine acquires energy from its shape, the same as the DNA structure. From here, the S2 Engine was envisioned as an energy source that would attempt to procure helical energy — in other words, an inexhaustible supply.

"The existence of the S2 Engine in Adam confirmed Katsuragi's theory," Ritsuko said, "and from there he was sent to investigate its properties and its future implications for humanity. Unfortunately, as curiosity kills the cat, they went too far by attempting to power up this Engine, and in the process caused Second Impact."

With the laptop on, Ritsuko typed some commands, arrived at a login screen and entered her password, then accessing a heavily-secured folder in the MAGI, found a video file and loaded it to play. The projector showed first a warning screen declaring the contents a UN top secret, before they could see what appeared to be an underground lab. They could also hear some dialogue, of men and women talking (but more like complaining) about living conditions. Judging from the run-time and the location of the camera being displayed, this was a surveillance video made about fifteen years ago.

At the same time Misato shivered, as if the memories of the cataclysm came rushing back like a bogeyman from the closet.

* * *

At a nearby table, with the novel open and both girls seated, Rei read as she flipped one page to another. Whenever she felt stumped about a passage or a word that she couldn't understand, Asuka gave her an explanation.

By page 43, in which Edward introduced himself to Bella at Forks High School's biology laboratory, just before the beginning of their class, Rei remarked, "I am no different from Bella."

"Sure you do," Asuka said, chuckling softly.

"Their meeting was like the first time we met," Rei recalled the day she was face-to-face with Kaworu, right at the Commander's office. "Once I came inside, as I always did, I was then surprised to see him."

"How did it go?"

Rei described their encounter, including the first words, and then she said, "He saw into my eyes that I was troubled, that I am in fear. From there, I think, that was when he decided to help me."

Choosing her words carefully, Rei then narrated how Kaworu tried to lend a hand, at first attempting to make her remember again, and then she was rescued when Unit-01 rejected her violently. Kaworu had even gone so far as to keep an eye on her while confined at the Infirmary.

"For the first time," Rei said, "after living a life where I thought myself to be nothing, through him I found a reason to live."

Asuka took a glance at her watch, and figured that it was time to go.

"Say, Wondergirl, why don't we borrow the book so that you can finish reading?" she recommended.

Rei nodded. "That would be fine."

"And your clothes, too, for tonight," Asuka added, pointing at Rei's school attire. "It'll be interesting to see how you look other than wearing that school uniform."

* * *

After all the screams, the klaxons and the crashes, and the mysterious figure of light smashing its way out, once the video concluded with the UN warning screen, everyone, except for Misato, Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki, were completely stunned to silence.

"That how the first scenario was based on," Ritsuko said, breaking the eerie quietness. "But then, there's another."

"Another?" Natsumi questioned. More whispering around her.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes, because Colonel Katsuragi has stumbled into an unusual development going on within the other branches, which is why she'll give you the heads-up."

As if on cue, Misato went to the laptop and opened the Shanghai surveillance files that Makoto sent to her days ago.

"A source, which I shall leave unnamed for secrecy, had sent me these pictures," she said, and put the photos onscreen. Being shot hastily from a pinhole camera, and while in motion, the pictures were almost out of focus, they showed them what looked to be Eva units, but with unusual modifications, with a disturbingly organic appearance, and all painted white.

Misato went on, "My source also told me that they've been developed under the collusion with our overseas branches without our knowledge, which brings us to the question: who ordered the creation of these new Evas? And for what purpose?

"The Instrumentality Committee is the only authority higher than us, which can issue such an expensive order. Now, where these new Evas would be used? Doctor Akagi can then answer this."

Standing aside, Misato nodded to Ritsuko to continue where she left off, taking center stage. On the laptop, she selected one of the few pictures that have little blurring and enlarged it on the projector, showing one of the white Evas standing, held down by braces, the elongated head leering down.

"As you can see," Ritsuko lectured, "this is far different than any of the Evas we have in our inventory. The head is unnatural, like you've stuck a whale's head onto a standard Eva body; there are no eyes either, so they may be using specialized sensors to 'see' their way around; there are no pauldrons either, which means that they could be using some kind of weapon, and that they may not be using an external battery pack, just like our Evas, which comes down to one possibility that they may now have a fully-functional S2 Engine. Worse, it's also likely that through our technology and information exchanges with our branches, somehow they may have built, without our knowledge… a working Dummy Plug."

Her audience gave her astonished looks.

"And why not?" Ritsuko said. "As some of you may have no idea, it's my sad regret to tell you that in the past we used Rei Ayanami as the basis for our failed Dummy Plug initiative, trying to make the Evas function on their own."

Ritsuko took the whiteboard marker and wrote down Kaworu's full name. "But with this development, however," she went on, "Nagisa's presence tells me that the Committee may have used him to build their Dummy Plug, just like Rei; if there's one, there might be more… So, Miss Ibuki, I believe that you still have the initial test results on him, right?"

Maya blinked twice. "Uh, yes, ma'am," she answered, pulling out a PDA from her pocket. "I think they're still here."

Ritsuko nodded. "Okay, copy the files to me."

With the room being set up for wireless networking, Maya copied the files to the laptop, and then Ritsuko loaded the report, which contained Kaworu's test results.

"Thank you," Ritsuko said, and then she pointed at the projected report on the whiteboard. "As you can see the graph here, Kaworu Nagisa has the capacity to set his sync rate at _will_. One minute he can lower it down to as much as ten percent, just to give his opponent a sporting chance, but in the next, he can drive up to eighty and maybe even more to crush his enemy to kingdom come. Now, I tell you why this is worrying: if Nagisa's thought patterns have been copied to the Dummy Plugs, it means that if these new Evas possess them, along with their own S2 Engines, then we could be in deep trouble."

"So what are we going to do, then?" Makoto asked, looking worried.

"Now, such a combination of these factors brings us to one problem: what is the real motive of the Instrumentality Committee to construct these Evas? Simple… I conclude, much to my regret, that they are preparing to _force_ Instrumentality upon us, by using Unit One as a substitute for Lilith, with these new Evas as the catalyst."

Misato sighed, and added, "In other words, they're about to create their own Third Impact… right in our backyard."

Instantly the room was filled with surprised gasps, followed by worried whispering and frowns on their faces.

"Which is why, because our Commander has deviated from their plans," Fuyutsuki said, looking determined. "It is now urgent, more than ever, that we must prepare ourselves for this worst-case scenario; we may have to stop them before they could end human existence... and it will be up to _us_, and to Shinji and Asuka to finish this damned thing once and for all."

* * *

Once they finished dressing up, Kaworu walked up to Shinji and said, "Before we go, I want you to remember this."

"What?" Shinji asked.

Kaworu took a breath as he laid his hand on Shinji's shoulder. He could also feel the beating of his heart. "Since you're much of a brother to me, I just want to say… _I love you_."

Shinji blinked, and then he blushed. "R… Really?"

Kaworu smiled. "It's one sincere way for me to thank you all. I owe you for changing me, and nothing else could be exchanged for such an experience we're sharing. As for you, since you have a fragile heart… Take care of it, even as you may have to face the hardest tests of your life and theirs, hell or high water."

To reassure him, Kaworu clapped Shinji on the shoulder.

"Have faith in yourself," Kaworu added.

"W… Well," Shinji stammered, immensely grateful for Kaworu's declaration, before he smiled. "I'll remember, and I thank you, too."

Kaworu nodded, and he smiled. "Come on, then. I think they're waiting for us."

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **Sorry for being a bit slow, but I'm trying my best to make for much time lost caused by my writer's block.

This chapter had some bits from an early draft, but I changed some of the details and made a few tweaks here and there. Furthermore, as you have noticed in the last several chapters, this story has become a mini-crossover with two notable characters from _Avatar,_ along with some references to interesting books I read in the past.

And since most of you know of the spa scene in Episode 24, I'm sure that rest assured that I have finally covered that angle. :)

This chapter is dedicated to Verauko (of Poland), AngelNo13Bardiel, The Eva Monkey, Reichu, Sachi, Sailor Stardust, Halicat, Ornette and the rest of the Evageeks crew.


	30. In the Garden of Kaji's Eden

"One more thing, sir," Misato said, just as they were about to conclude the meeting upon Fuyutsuki's declaration. Already the others were gathering up their notes and packing them into folders.

"Pardon me, Colonel?" Fuyutsuki asked. Everyone else stopped to listen.

"Well," Misato said, "Kaji left some information with me, but now that everything has fallen into place, I wonder if all this answers what questions he had when he searched for the truth." She then pulled the miniaturized flash memory capsule out from her pocket, and looked at it.

Fuyutsuki sighed. "What matters now that his death is no longer in vain," he said, "and everything that transpired here for the last few years have made perfect sense: everything has fallen into place. Now the question of our survival depends on how we could act on this knowledge."

"Exactly, sir," Misato agreed. "Now it makes perfect sense why they wanted Asuka to die."

The old man frowned. "Why?"

"Take Asuka and Unit Two out of the picture," she said, "and without her to distract them, those new Evas would be going after Unit One like a pack of wolves."

"In that case, you'll have to tell those kids to be very careful," Fuyutsuki said with concern. "She's one of our two aces in the sleeve right now."

Misato nodded. "I'll do that, sir."

"Furthermore, you will not discuss this with the Children unless they're prepared to listen. Is that clear?"

"That'll be perfectly clear," Misato answered.

"But sir, now that the Commander has Adam," Natsumi wondered aloud, "what could we do with him?" The question was another shocker.

"I didn't know that," Fuyutsuki said, visibly startled. "How that happened?"

Natsumi told everyone that she performed the surgical operation on Commander Ikari's left hand, to graft Adam directly onto his palm. Having never told Adam's exact purpose, she feared for any dark implications that can arise from the possession of this creature.

In complete disbelief, Fuyutsuki shook his head before he took the time to ponder, and they waited on him for his word.

"Mister Kanzaki," Fuyutsuki said after a moment, breaking the silence.

"Yes, sir?" Tsutomo said.

"If we have to stop him, this isn't the right time," he warned. "Right now, if we move too hastily without thinking first, and discovers our initiative, we would run the risk of treason. So I need you to come to Hamamoto and ask that I need to talk to him later about what we're up against. Given that he's not happy as we are, if I explain everything to him, I hope that he could oblige himself to help us."

Tsutomo nodded.

Fuyutsuki sighed. "And by the way," he said thereafter, "whatever we have said today should never leave this room. I remind you that from this point onward we will have to be very careful with every step we do, with every word we say or write, and what we think. Is that clear?"

Everyone answered in unison: "Yes, sir!"

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 2  
**_CHAPTER 30: IN THE GARDEN OF KAJI'S EDEN  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 9/25/2010 10:11 a9/p9

* * *

In their quarters, as Asuka pulled out her spare T-shirt and a pair of jeans from one of her bags, Rei stripped herself down to underwear, setting her uniform aside. As she stood there waiting, Asuka handed over the garments to Rei and said, "Here they are, and I hope they're the right size."

Rei first tried the jeans, which surprisingly fit over her hips as she pulled the zipper up, before wearing the shirt over her head. She then walked over to a mirror and glanced at herself.

For the first time she was wearing something other than her everyday school uniform, and gave the redhead a faint smile.

Asuka nodded. "Not bad," she approved with a grin, but an idea suddenly popped into her head. "Now, what else? Oh, yeah, why don't I try to put some makeup on you, just to see if they look good?"

Rei blinked. "Makeup?"

"Yeah," Asuka replied as she opened one of Misato's duffel bags and from inside grabbed a bottle of facial cleanser, some cotton balls, eyeliner, mascara, facial powder, and a tube of light lipstick; she laid them all on the bed. "I've been waiting to do this for a very loooooong time," she quipped before chuckling.

Asuka then pulled a stool aside and gestured to Rei to sit down. "Now, keep yourself still," she advised before opening the cleanser bottle and splashed the contents onto a ball of cotton.

"Is this necessary?" Rei asked.

"Have to make sure your face is clean," Asuka answered as she began to wipe Rei's face with the soaked cotton. In reaction to the cleanser's alcohol on the skin, Rei grimaced a bit but otherwise held herself as Asuka went about rubbing the girl's cheeks, then the forehead before moving on to the chin and neck.

Once done, Asuka then applied the eyeliner and the mascara. "Don't blink," she warned as she worked on Rei's eyes. "Just relax. I'll put these to highlight your eyes, but I don't want to put too much."

Inwardly Rei found the experience rather interesting and refreshing; in fact she never did, not even at school, when while the girls of her age were experimenting with makeup in the ladies' room, all she did was to wash her face and wipe clean with a handkerchief. Her classmates, some of them afflicted with pimples, wondered how she managed to have those nice blemish-free cheeks without resorting to any over-the-counter facial products or even cosmetic surgery.

"In case you're wondering," Asuka said, carefully daubing the mascara onto Rei's lashes. "I'm doing this as a way to teach you about what it's like to be on your own, and putting makeup is one of those things."

Once done, Rei blinked twice as she looked at the mirror. Her eyes looked a bit different, accentuated by the makeup.

"What do you think?" Asuka questioned.

"It is unusual for me," Rei answered.

Asuka nodded. "Well, it's because it's your first time. Now, let's try the facial powder," she said, grinning while opening up the Shu Uemura powder clamshell and began applying it onto Rei's cheeks.

"Is this how you prepare for…," Rei said, trying to find the right word, "dating?"

"Exactly," Asuka replied, still working on the right cheek. "You have to blow out the mind of your opposite, and you should know that."

"I see, but what is 'blowing out the mind'?"

"Again, it's an idiom," Asuka said, this time on Rei's left cheek. "Means you make them look dumb the first time they see you; they get dazzled, drop their jaws, open their eyes like they're surprised, and say, 'is that _really _her?' That's what attraction is all about, Rei. You knock 'em dead."

Now Asuka went about inspecting Rei's face, scrutinizing her handiwork, making sure she didn't left too much or little, before going on to the lipstick; Asuka twisted the tube till the pink end emerged.

"What is that?"

Inwardly Asuka was a bit amused at Rei's reactions, as though the First Children was questioning like a kindergartener, curious about the world around her.

"Well, this?" Asuka said, holding the lipstick tube. "It's lipstick, but don't worry, it's just light pink, not red."

"I understand now," Rei agreed.

"All right, just hold still as I put this on you," Asuka said before she began carefully tracing lipstick along Rei's lips, trying not to apply too much or little as the tube was the only one of two left (the other being "Marilyn Monroe Red") in Misato's bag.

Finished, Asuka nodded to Rei to stand up and see for herself in the mirror. "Well?" the redhead asked.

"I… I look different," Rei said. "I cannot tell if I am…"

"Beautiful," Asuka added, inspecting her handiwork.

"But… I do not want the things around my eyes." Rei pointed at the mascara and the eyeliner.

Asuka blinked. "What?"

"They look too dark. I do not like it."

"Yet they can make your eyes look more attractive," Asuka said, but changed her mind with a sigh. "Ah, okay, you're right… Let's try to take it off."

"Yes," Rei said as the redhead rummaged through the bag and found a jar of Ponds; this she used to wipe away the mascara.

Now this time Rei looked nicer, with the minimum amount of makeup.

"What do you think?" Asuka inquired this time.

"This is better," Rei commented with a small hint of a smile. "Thank you."

While Rei kept on looking at herself in the mirror, Asuka took hold of her cellphone and began making a text message for Shinji and Kaworu to come down here; she was thrilled to show to them what she had wrought.

* * *

On their way up to the bachelor quarters area, to their temporary abode he shared with Asuka and Misato, Shinji thought of the words that Kaworu said before they left the baths.

In his entire life he had received little amount of affection, respect or a measure of appreciation for the things he did. Try as he might, he couldn't get anything from his father, a man he was supposed to look up as an example and respected. Sure, there were words of praise, but they were hollow and meaningless, devoid of emotion or warmth as if he wasn't his father's son.

He asked himself, _did Father loved Mom? How that came to be? How Mom could love a man like him? What really happened between them?_

Shinji sighed, knowing that the questions may never be answered, as his father only knew yet would never tell a word about his personal life.

Yet…

If his father can't love him, fine. Asuka was now the love of his life, and they reciprocated each other since yesterday; Misato loved him, even without saying the words, as though he was her younger surrogate brother; and Rei… well, Shinji knew that he'll have to love her in the same way…

As if Rei was his twin sister.

The thought made him chuckle; he felt lucky today, glad and feeling secure this time. But that's not all, because Kaworu declared that he loved him just like he was his brother, and that was one of the few words of affection he heard from someone he even barely knew for a few days.

Today, and yesterday, might as well be the two days that Shinji will remember for the rest of his life, for what love and affection he could not get from his father, he can get from the people closest to him, people who belong to his surrogate family. That, indeed, was a reward better than all the gold in the world.

What more he could ask for?

The question suddenly thought of his mother. Was she listening all the time? Knowing what was happening to him? Feeling his emotions at the moment?

Shinji wished she was here. In person. Calling his name with arms wide open, ready to listen to all of what he wanted to say, without fear or doubt, making up for the time lost…

Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate, knocking off his train of thought. He then pulled the phone out of his pocket and opened the clamshell, pressing a button and then read the message from Asuka.

"What does she say?" Kaworu asked, a bit perturbed by the unexpected text message.

"She likes you to check out Ayanami," Shinji said as he put the phone away.

Kaworu blinked. "About what?"

Shinji shrugged. "I have no idea, but maybe she wants to surprise you."

"I see."

Once they came up at the door, Shinji first knocked but Asuka loudly answered, "Just a moment!"

Shinji sighed and asked himself, "What were they doing?"

Kaworu didn't answer but the door slid open, and suddenly Asuka pulled Shinji in and exclaimed, "Hey, look at her!"

The Fifth Children took a glance at Rei and blinked twice. There she was, standing, wearing a white baby t-shirt that accentuated her figure instead of hiding it; the tight jeans did the same effect to her hips. Finally the light makeup, along with a good hair-brushing to straighten out the kinks, brought out a bit more of Rei's natural beauty.

"Any comments?" Asuka questioned the boys, cocking her head sideways. "I've put some makeup on her… Because I wanted to try."

But Kaworu and Shinji were speechless for a moment, blinking as if they wanted to make sure their eyes weren't lying to them.

Asuka smacked her hand over the forehead. "Aw, come on, what's the big deal?" she asked aloud.

"I… I can't say," Shinji said, fumbling to get the right words out of his mouth, "I think she really looks... Uh, nice."

"Lame answer, you dummy," Asuka objected.

"No, really, I'm telling you the truth," Shinji answered back.

As the two other Children argued, Kaworu approached Rei. "What took you so long?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, but it took a bit longer than I expected," Kaworu replied, hand running over his hair. "Never got to talk to him personally, so we ran late."

"I see," Rei said. "What do you think about my appearance?" she asked, turning around for Kaworu to see.

Kaworu smiled. "I don't want to exaggerate this, but I'm surprised that Asuka could do this for you; you look stunning with that makeup."

"Thank you. I want to try something new, and this is my first time. She is also very good."

The Fifth Children glanced at the wall clock; it was still early, almost three o'clock.

"I just want to ask… Where's Kaji's garden?" Kaworu asked.

Shinji paused to think, trying to recall the last time he was there, when hell broke loose with a rampaging Angel, but Kaji, oddly enough, was watering the watermelon patch for no reason except for the claim that he decided not to intervene with the defense of the complex.

"There's a trail going from here to the Geofront wall," Shinji said. "You should be able to see it… Uh, I think it goes from…" he trailed off, attempting to remember the orientation and the direction, but then he saw a pen and a pad on the dining table, went there and grabbed them both, before returning to sketch out the location.

Once done, Shinji said, "If I'm right, the patch should be right before you at the end of the trail." The boy sighed and asked, "What are you two going to do there?"

"I wanted to do an errand for Misato before we move on to Rei's place," Kaworu said as he took the impromptu map from Shinji. "Have to water the patch because she didn't have much time."

"Oh," Asuka blurted.

"It's going to be a long way from here, however, so you might have to borrow a bicycle at the main hall," Shinji advised.

"Okay," Kaworu answered. "I'll keep that in mind."

Just then Rei asked, "Is it acceptable if I must change back to my uniform first? I want to keep tonight's clothes clean."

Asuka nodded. "Sure, but use the bathroom instead." _Because if you try it here, you might cause a nosebleed flood,_ she quipped in her thoughts.

* * *

Somewhere within the bowels of Central Dogma, Sanderson was trying to affix a remotely-detonated bomb onto a large switchbox, which was used to control the flow of Bakelite throughout the entire complex.

Apart from being used as a phased-matter restraining fluid, Bakelite can also be used to flood whole areas as a security measure, to permanently seal off contaminated areas in case of biological, chemical or nuclear accidents, or in the event of armed intrusion.

Once the switchbox is destroyed, it would give the assault teams no obstacles to mop up every level until nothing is left alive. Following the dictum that the most modern technology is vulnerable to the primitive weapons of warfare, Sanderson planted several other bombs to disable most of the Geofront's defenses, including anti-aircraft batteries, missile silos, sensor arrays, radomes, communication towers, and remotely-controlled armored gates.

How he managed to sneak them inside? It was planned in advance several months ago, and on weekends he slipped the explosives across by using one of the abandoned passageways leading from the outside into the complex. With the use of blueprints he stole from one of the engineers responsible for the Geofront's upkeep, he located several of these Achilles' heels and installed the bombs.

With one last detonator affixed into the block of Semtex, Sanderson switched on the receiver. A red LED light blinked repeatedly, telling him that the receiver was ready to accept the detonation code from a trigger transmitter disguised as a mint dispenser.

The mole sighed as he packed away his gear, and thought of what to do with the Second Children.

_That little girl could wait,_ he decided, yet he had an idea. _Why don't I kill two birds with one stone?_

* * *

Once Rei was finished changing back to her usual school pinafore, the casual clothes she would be using later tonight were packed in a plastic bag, along with the book she and Asuka had borrowed. As she came out of the bathroom, the other Children were talking as they were waiting.

"Well," Shinji said, "I don't know what else to do… You got any ideas?" he questioned Asuka.

"Yeah, dummy," Asuka retorted humorously before laughing. "Why don't we go online and chat with Hikari?" she suggested, pointing out at the desktop computer nearby. "You haven't got a chance to talk since… When?"

"Two days ago, I think. When we dropped off Pen-Pen."

"Ah," the redhead said as she walked over to the computer and switched it on.

"Guess we have go now," Kaworu said, his hand holding Rei's as the door slid open. "We'll see you later."

The other two Children waved their hands in unison. "No problem," Shinji said while Asuka plopped down on a seat in front of the computer. Once the door closed, Asuka turned her attention to the young man.

"What you two were talking about back there?" she asked as the PC booted to life. "In the spa?"

"Uh… He talked about himself, and then a few questions."

Asuka cocked an eye. "About what?"

Shinji sighed. "About what we did yesterday, then we talked about betrayal… That's all." _Can't say much, _he thought,_ I'm afraid you might think I'm kind of-_

"Philosophy," Asuka muttered before she opened an instant messenger and logged in.

* * *

Back at Ritsuko's lab, sitting on one of the chairs, Misato's mind was whirling with all the revelations they had just heard twenty minutes ago.

As she watched Ritsuko pore over the backlog of work on her computer, trying to address them all, Misato wondered when they could make the next move. The first problem they have to deal with was Commander Ikari and Adam in his possession.

Misato groaned in frustration; Ikari was still in control, no matter how distant he was. Although Fuyutsuki sometimes acted as a deputy while Ikari was in absence, the Commander still had full control of the division heads within the organization, including the Second Section, and thus he could countermand any orders Fuyutsuki may issue.

Now it came to this: how they could stop Ikari from attempting to do the unthinkable? How they could pull Adam away from him? It was tantamount to a mutiny, and if they got caught she knew damn well the penalties are severe.

Worse, if Third Impact was to occur and they were all in jail, they would have little to do except to wait for the end to come.

But then she recalled what Fuyutsuki said about Hamamoto: if they could convince the Second Section director to defect to their side, it would give them a solid advantage, nullify Ikari's authority as Commander, and thus the entire NERV security apparatus would also be under their authority; once that control is established, the defense of the organization would be made possible.

Misato sighed, realizing that all that would ride on a lot of factors and the best timing; they have to find the chink in the Commander's armor, and determine when or where he could lower his defense.

She asked, _What is the Commander's greatest weakness? _

* * *

More than a hundred kilometers away from where Misato was sitting, in Tokyo-2 Hikari was sitting right in front of a computer, chatting with her classmates through the IM, fellow refugees who were once Tokyo-3 residents.

Apart from her, Toji was helping Mari with her homework on the mat in the middle of the living room, discussing the intricacies of the multiplication table, while Kensuke was busy dodging missiles and jinking his plane in a round of _Ace Combat 8_ on the Xbox 720. As usual, Hikari's sisters were out for shopping in downtown.

Hikari was almost done talking to some of the other girls when a pop-up box told her that Asuka was online. Excited, she clicked on it and typed in the chat box:

_Hikari-chan: Hey sis what took you so long?  
ASLangley: sorry I was busy thru the whole morning  
Hikari-chan: what do you mean?  
ASLangley: I'm back in business. Unit 2 is mine again. _

Suddenly Hikari blinked, her brain exclaiming: _Oh, my God, she's back!_

_Hikari-chan: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG CONGRATULATIONS! You did it!  
Hikari-chan: YES YES YES  
ASLangley: calm down everything's all rite. Just turn on the webcam cause I have Shinji with me  
Hikari-chan: you do?  
ASLangley: yeah _

Hikari turned her attention to her companions around the room and hollered, "Hey, Asuka's online right now! With SHINJI!"

In an instant, Kensuke dropped his controller, Toji and Mari stood up, and Pen-Pen came dashing from the kitchen. Once they all huddled around the computer, Hikari turned on the webcam and the speaker. Onscreen and through the cam window, they can now see Asuka sitting with Shinji besides her, which was a pleasant surprise, prompting Kensuke and Toji to make a congratulatory high-five: _Shinji's the man, all right!_

With the microphone on, Hikari asked, "Hi there, how are you doing this time?"

"I'm all right," Shinji replied, his voice almost garbled by the long transmission and the data compression.

"Uh, I notice that you two are holding hands. Are you two steady now?"

Asuka and Shinji nodded in unison, reminding them of the synchronization exercise both Children did months ago. The reply prompted Hikari and everyone else to laugh and cheer; even Pen-Pen was squawking loudly, making a happy dance with waving flippers.

"When?" she asked.

"Yesterday," Asuka said. "We finally made up our minds." From there both Children began to recount everything that transpired since the last time Asuka talked to Hikari: the ambush, the assassination attempt, the successful synchronization test, and above all, how they hit it off.

"…and there, I realized that we were the same," Asuka said. "Like as if somehow we've been put together by destiny."

"But…" Hikari trailed off, "Why, why someone would want you dead?"

Asuka shook her head. "I'm not sure, except it happens that I'm too important. Because of that, the whole base is in yellow alert."

The whole gang looked glum, before Hikari said, "I hope Misato is keeping a good eye on you, yet I know you can still fight."

"I'll kill again if necessary," Asuka replied, flexing her right hand. "I know what to do should that happens once more."

"I made a promise to myself," Shinji added. "I promised since yesterday that I'll protect Asuka with everything I have."

"Now that's profound, buddy," Toji said.

"Hey," Kensuke budged in. "How did you know you were able to shoot? That was damn cool of you."

Shinji snickered, proud of what he did yesterday on the road. "You taught me, remember? When I ran away, am I right?"

Kensuke now recalled how he instructed Shinji on how to use a gun. "Damn right," he agreed with a big grin. "I'm so proud of you, soldier," he added, mimicking the voice of an action star in a commando movie, before throwing a salute at Shinji.

"Thanks," Shinji said, laughing softly. "Well, Toji," he added, "by the way, how's your arm?"

Toji raised his still-bandaged stump that was once his left arm. "It's healing well," he answered. "But Doctor Odani recommended me to a specialist at the Tokyo-2 University who might help me with an experimental treatment."

"What treatment?" Shinji asked while Asuka blinked.

"Uh…" Toji said, trying to recall what his new doctor told him. "It's called ECM, and it's from America; they said by having multiple treatments of the stuff, I might soon grow a new arm and a leg, and maybe even a hand."

Asuka and Shinji pitched forward, as though they couldn't believe it. "What?" both Children asked together, before Toji explained the details; basically ECM involved using an enzyme that promotes regeneration of any living tissue, and so far previous clinical tests showed that continued treatment allowed lost limbs or body parts to be rebuilt literally from the ground up.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine through all that," Toji said. "NERV is still sending the medical compensation paychecks in the mail, so I don't have to worry much about the costs; each treatment costs as much as a small car, but it'll be cheaper since the experiment is funded privately."

The two other Children sighed in relief; Toji will be all right, and by the middle of next year, they guessed that he would be able to go back playing basketball on a regular basis, without having to carry the prosthesis all the time.

"That's very good," Asuka praised. "But, sis, what's hanging with you two?"

"Other than Toji's medical," Hikari said, "there's nothing else to worry about here. I've been teaching him how to cook."

Asuka chuckled. "He should be, and Toji, should you serve what you cook, don't give me an upset stomach, okay?"

Toji nodded. "All right, but don't call me a blockhead for nothing," he replied, before laughing and added, "Seriously, I'll learn much from her."

"Good," Shinji said. "That'll make you a fine husband someday."

"You bet," Toji replied, but Hikari playfully elbowed him, prompting to grimace for a second.

There was a moment to let it all sink in before Kensuke asked Shinji, "How long do you think you're going to make it through?"

Shinji shrugged. "I don't know, and I'm not sure how long this'll last, but we're trying."

Asuka nodded, and she said, "If ever things come to worse, we'll rush in with guns blazing; nobody will gonna dispute us with an AT-Field and ten thousand layers of armor."

* * *

Rented from the Pyramid's main lobby, the twenty-six-incher utility mountain bike had a basket on the handlebars, and a baggage pallet on the rear, which would allow Rei to ride on the back. Kaworu said, "I can ride this, but this is how you sit here." He demonstrated it by sitting sideways on the pallet.

Rei nodded. "I have never ridden a bicycle," she said.

"Don't worry," Kaworu reassured. "Try to hold my waist as I drive, okay? I'll sit first, and then you go there." He took the backpack off and handed it over to Rei, who strapped it onto her body; he brought the backpack with them, containing everything what he needed just in case, including his well-disguised communication equipment... and, of course, the copy of _Twilight _that she and Asuka had borrowed from the library.

Kaworu then sat down on the saddle, and as instructed, Rei placed herself on the pallet, sitting sideways before she held onto Kaworu's waist.

"Now, hold tight," he said as he started to pedal forward, trying to keep the bike balanced as they got off the pavement and hit the trail.

The next few minutes were quiet, as Kaworu glided the bike smoothly on the three-kilometer-long trail, going under the pine trees, the tires crunching on the dried leaves and grass. Once in a while an obstacle in a form of a large rock came upon them, and he had to make a careful swerve to avoid it, but Rei had to clasp her arms and hands tighter each time it happened.

As he pedaled, Kaworu felt better satisfaction of being out in the woods, breathing in the air, much better than the air-conditioned and filtered atmosphere down at Central Dogma. His ears were alert, hearing the chirping from a family of birds in their nest; and insects buzzing their mating calls.

"What do you think?" Kaworu asked Rei, who was still holding on.

"Again, this is new to me," she answered, referring to her very first bike ride.

Kaworu chuckled; he was pleased to hear Rei experiencing something new with him.

Once they arrived, with Rei getting off first before Kaworu set the bike down, two things came up to his mind, dredging memories of Misato and Shinji, the first being the message from Kaji on the answering machine, through Misato's ears:

"_Misato, it's me. I'm sure you're listening to this message, after I caused you so much trouble. Sorry. Please tell Ritsuko that I'm really sorry. And there's one more thing to trouble you with: I've been growing flowers. I'd appreciate it if you could water the flowers for me. Shinji knows where they are. The truth is with you. Don't hesitate. Just move ahead!"_

_There was a second of hesitation before Kaji spoke again._

"_If I can see you again, I promise that I will say the words that I couldn't say to you eight years ago. Bye."_

The second came from Shinji's memories, through his eyes:

"_Shinji?" Kaji asked as he had the hose in his hand, watering the patch while anti-personnel gun batteries were trying to blast the Angel away with tracers and cannon shells. Missiles could also be seen flying away, before they exploded on the Angel's AT-Field._

_Shinji, exhausted from running at full tilt, in ragged breaths, was just as surprised to see him here. "Kaji," he said. "What are you doing in a place like this?"_

_Kaji shrugged. "That's my line, and what are you doing?"_

_Shinji looked morose. "I… I won't pilot Unit One anymore, since I decided that..." he trailed off as he watched the Angel unfurl its destructive ribbons and proceeded to slash at the Pyramid._

_The stubble-faced agent cocked his head. "Uh-huh? Since my cover had been blown, I lost my command position in the perimeter defense, and so I've been busy taking care of the watermelons."_

_The boy frowned. "At a crazy time like this?"_

_Kaji laughed as the water splashed on the leaves. "Because it's a good time like this," he said. "Though I'd rather be in Katusragi's boobs, I'd like to be here when I die."_

_Shinji blinked twice. "Die? Why?"_

_The agent sighed. "They say that when an Angel comes into contact with Adam, sleeping underground here, all humanity will be annihilated," Kaji warned. "That cataclysm will be Third Impact, yet it can only be stopped by an Evangelion, which has the same power as an Angel."_

_Suddenly, without warning Unit-00 burst out of one of the huge gates, carrying an N2-tipped ICBM in her remaining arm as she ran._

_Shinji was shocked. "Ayanami! What she's doing without a rifle?"_

_Unit-00 began firing up her AT-Field to full power, as Shinji could imagine Rei in the Entry Plug, struggling to get the missile close to the Angel's core. But much to her misfortune, the Angel quickly covered its core with a rocky armor shortly before the N2 warhead detonated with a near-blinding blast, causing Shinji and Kaji to instinctively drop down to the ground, covering themselves before the shockwave hit them both with a wall of air._

_And at the same time the Angel unleashed its ribbon blades at Unit-00 and flung her out with her limbs and body in tatters._

_Both men breathed deeply, trying to recover themselves as they stood up slowly. Kaji flicked off the dirt on his chest and face, before he said, "Shinji, I have little else to do but tend these melons here. But for you, I bet there is something which you can do and only you can do. Nobody is forcing you. Think for yourself and decide by yourself... what you should do now. Well, I hope you have nothing to regret."_

"So this is the place," Kaworu said to Rei, as they stood before the watermelon patch, now almost overrun by weeks of weeds, covering the vines and the fruits. Not far away was a wooden shack, probably containing gardening tools inside. Apparently the patch was once part of a bigger fruit and vegetable garden, presumably to sustain construction workers and technicians with fresh produce while they built and equipped NERV headquarters from the beginning.

"What we should do first?" Rei asked.

Kaworu shrugged. "Since my guardian taught me how to do it, let's pull out the weeds first before we water."

Rei nodded as they walked over to the patch and began uprooting the weeds from the ground, teaching her as they went. The process took some time, staining their hands as they cleared every square meter until they had a fine pile of weeds right besides the patch.

"Well," Kaworu said as he flicked his hands clean, "What do you think? It looks better, right?"

"Yes," Rei answered. "They will grow better, now that their patch is clear."

"Guess it's time to do what we came here for," Kaworu replied as he located the faucet and the coiled hose. He picked up the nozzled end of the hose and opened the faucet; once water came out he first washed his hands, before he asked Rei to come over and let him wash hers.

Once that was done, he began to spray gently in a slow arc.

Rei watched Kaworu water the plants, the drizzle landing on the leaves, water accumulating into droplets, before dripping away onto the ground, bringing moisture to the otherwise-parched soil.

"I regret that I…" Rei trailed off, "I have not done something like this before."

"Like gardening?" Kaworu asked, still aiming the nozzle like a careful brush stroke on canvas.

Rei quietly nodded.

Kaworu chuckled. "You know," he said, "It amazes me to no end that you still have much more to discover about this world, things that you and I have yet to see and experience… and things that we could learn from. In my case, it's also a learning experience for me.

"Oh, I learned much from Shinji. Or Asuka. Or Misato. Even from Doctor Akagi. Why? Despite their weaknesses, somehow the lilim have the capacity to forgive themselves and others for the sins they commit, and maybe even the ability to stick to their promises to be better persons in the future… which is another reason why I have made up my mind to let the lilim live.

"Now, I don't want to hurt Shinji. I don't want to, because he's the most vulnerable of all, and I'm trying to respect his feelings, and to build some confidence in him, because you and I know that... Forgive me, but things at the end will be very ugly for all of us."

Kaworu shook his head and sighed. "Why would a lilim try to reinvent the world they live in? For what purpose? Purity? Nirvana? Infinite and false happiness at the expense of giving no one the chance to decide their own fates?"

The young man walked back to the faucet and shut off the water, before he rose and proclaimed, "I am not a god; I am a servant, just as you do. Yet as we're individuals, we still have the right to decide the fate of the world we exist in."

Rei approached him and she said, "I have made my decision."

Kaworu blinked. "What is it?"

"I will fight," Rei decided, "should someone think you are wrong, should someone harm Ikari or Soryu, and I will fight for those connections that make me what I am. Like you I have no regret; you gave me eyes when I was blind; a tongue when I was mute; and an ear when I was deaf."

Rei slowly took Kaworu's hands and cradled them to hers. "Just when I thought I am an empty entity, devoid of life, expendable and worthless…" she trailed off. "By chance, you have come here to make me a better person."

The girl looked up to the boy's eyes and added, "I do not care should we be punished by the Commander; if he wills us to die, then we will not… For I love you… Because we will fight to live…"

"As one," Kaworu whispered, before they leaned to each other and began to kiss.

* * *

"Hey," Hikari asked Asuka, "I forgot to mention about your new friend Kaworu."

Asuka and Shinji blinked. "Him?"

The gang was anticipating for an answer. "Where's he?" she said.

"He's with Ayanami right now," Shinji replied. "Gone to water Kaji's watermelon patch, and from there they'll head back to her apartment. They should be back tonight, just in time for a night out."

Disappointed, Hikari sighed. "It would've been interesting to talk to him for the first time… But, wait a second, what's up with those two?"

Shinji laughed quietly. "They're in _love_."

His friends all exclaimed in one voice: "WHAT?"

"You should see them together and… You know what, Kensuke? He thawed her out, just as you have predicted."

"See, see, see! I am the undisputed strategist!" Kensuke proudly boasted, before Toji lightly slapped him over the head, and they all laughed.

"Oh, what about Misato?" Toji asked.

"Glad you mentioned her," Asuka said. "She's a lieutenant-colonel now, which is why tonight we're all going to the O-Club to celebrate."

Kensuke was bug-eyed enough for his eyeball whites to fill his glasses. "Really? That's amazing!" he exclaimed. "Attaining two command ranks in less than two months! Well, how she got those new pins?"

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki promoted her last night," Shinji said.

Kensuke nodded. "Ah… That's damn cool because she kicked ass, but from there I'm sure she'll have a bigger workload to deal with."

"I understand that," Shinji said. "It's just that she needed to move things quicker, 'cause back then she had trouble trying to put things in order."

* * *

As they were about to leave after kissing, while Rei picked up a watermelon for them to consume at her flat, as Kaworu walked over to the bicycle, sidestepping the vines and the melons, he stumbled to the ground.

"I tripped on something," he said, wondering what his foot had found. With curiosity he sought for the object by parting away the vines and, feeling with his hands, found that it was a metal box measuring about six inches on all sides.

"What is this?" Kaworu asked Rei.

"I do not know," she replied.

To answer that, using his fingers to grip the edges, Kaworu pulled the heavy box out of the ground and set it right besides the hole it made. He then brushed off the dirt and examined the top. Engraved into the metal was the name: "R. Kaji".

Kaworu blinked, realizing why Kaji gave out his last message on the answering machine: to tell Misato that he had hidden this box amongst the watermelons, and by watering the plants she could find what he had left for her.

"The message made sense," Kaworu whispered as he tapped the sides with knuckles, and then he shook the box. With the brushing sound, there was something inside.

"Message?" Rei asked with interest.

"You see, shortly before he was killed Kaji left Misato with a message, but really a clue, but she didn't know that she could find this box here. Obviously this message was his last will and testament for her to act on."

"What does it contain?"

Kaworu shrugged as he hefted the box and carried it over near the bicycle. "I have no idea unless we bring this later to Misato. Who knows, this could be very important for her."

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **After what seemed to be a very agonizing week, I have delivered. Again. Because I found my flow tonight, and everything's all right!

Now, with this chapter done with, I have started on a new fanfic project for another fandom – _Maria-sama ga Miteru_ – and it's called _Nineteen_. That's right, it's a new series that I hope would bring a new genre of action and suspense in a sea of one-shot shipping romances, something I need to shake up the tree. (chuckles) Like _Light and Water, _each chapter of _Nineteen_ will be produced on a weekly basis.

For the past few months, ever since my brother-in-law had set up an internet connection, it was good to be online, but at the price of wasting some precious time that I would otherwise devote to brainstorming and writing. Now that I have realized my mistake, I decided to manage my time wisely, while knowing how much my in-law is paying for the electricity.

Finally, next week I'll turn 34 on Friday, but the fight's not over yet. Not until I win my freedom.

Until then, tune in for the next installment of _Light and Water._ Thank you, and keep sending me your comments and criticisms; I need them both to make sure I maintain the quality of my storytelling.

OBTW... Better prepare for **Season Three**...

As Strike Fiss once put in the end of every chapter of _Higher Learning:_ Khattam-shud!


	31. Box of Mystery

_**Author's Warning:**__ Possible Fanwank (lol), Lime and Spoilers. Read at your own risk._

"_I'll show you mine if you show me yours."  
_- Wendy Hood (Christina Ricci) to Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood)  
_The Ice Storm (1997)_

"_History may be servitude; history may be freedom."_  
- attributed to T.S. Eliot,_ Little Gidding (1942)_

* * *

Hamamoto was poring over several reports, most of which concerning the ongoing hunt for the mole. So far his men managed to locate suspicious phone numbers somewhere in Germany, yet despite all their efforts have not yet been able to produce any names.

Groaning, Hamamoto pressed his temples, trying to relieve himself when he heard a knocking on the glass door. He looked up and it was Fuyutsuki waiting there, standing. The old director gestured to the Sub-Commander to come inside.

After Fuyutsuki came in and sat down on one of the empty seats, Hamamoto offered him a cup of coffee, but out of tradition the former professor insisted that they should have some tea instead.

Once Hamamoto finished preparing the tea and gave one of the cups to Fuyutsuki, who thanked him, only then after he sat down on his high-backed chair he was able to ask, "Pardon me, sir, but may I ask what brings you here?"

"It's really important. Have Kanzaki told you about me coming here?" Fuyutsuki questioned after he sipped his tea.

Hamamoto nodded. "I was told that I was to expect you… A very serious problem we have to talk about, he said." He then took a sip and breathed easy.

"By the way, where's he?" Fuyutsuki questioned, as if concerned.

"I've sent him to check on our new weapons shipment."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Ah… I see."

Hamamoto sighed. "Tell me, sir… What's up this time?"

"First of all, I'm aware that you're under much pressure to produce a mole," Fuyutsuki said.

"That's right," Hamamoto answered. "Commander Ikari's damn impatient."

"Now, are you very well aware that this mole is just a part of a bigger plan?"

Hamamoto nodded. "I think so, sir, but already we're close to getting a name, and we found out that Oda had a contact somewhere in Germany. A big one, I guess, and could be his employer."

"Even if there are no names yet, I'm afraid to say that we're facing a real threat."

"From whom?"

Fuyutsuki set down his cup onto the desk and asked outright, "What do you know of SEELE?"

Hamamoto blinked twice, and then shook his head. For a few moments he gave himself pause to mull over this mysterious name, and then admitted, "I have no idea, sir."

Fuyutsuki sighed. "This is going to be between you and me, so listen closely," he warned.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 31: BOX OF MYSTERY (A DEAD SPY TELL TALES)  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 12/31/2010 0:30 a12/p12

* * *

Meanwhile, hundreds of meters away, Gendo Ikari was staring at the deputy director of Second Section, Edgar Morrissey, both unaware of the transaction between Fuyutsuki and Hamamoto.

Prior to being employed by NERV, Morrissey was a former British intelligence officer for nearly twenty years, and having survived one of the wars that plagued the planet in the aftermath of Second Impact.

As it was customary within Ikari's throne room, Morrissey stood right before the Commander, his suit well-pressed, and wore a grave expression on his face that seemed to be permanently marked on, as though he had seen too much in his entire career. His brown hair now had some strands of gray, a product of dealing with stressful situations endemic in intelligence work.

Now he was here, summoned but without informing Hamamoto about being here. It was so quiet in this place that Morrissey could hear the faint cycle of Ikari's breathing, as that man's hands were folded right before his face, the amber-tinted glasses gleaming in the dim light.

As protocol dictated, Morrissey decided that it would be best to let the Commander do the talking first; it was open knowledge that Commander Ikari was the definitive overlord of the house, and his word was law.

"Mister Morrissey, I know that your predecessor will be retiring next month, is that correct?"

Morrissey nodded. "Yes, Commander, Director Hamamoto told me about it," he answered in Queen's English.

Gendo let off his customary, low-frequency murmur that almost everyone at NERV knew was either a yes or a no, and in this case it was a "yes".

"May I ask something, Commander?"

"Go ahead," Gendo answered.

"Is there anything you wish for me to do?"

Gendo leaned forward and said, "The reason I want you here is for you, without Hamamoto's knowledge and as I could no longer rely on his good judgment, to pick, prepare and brief several of your best men for an operation." He then palmed a folder that was sitting on his desk, and offered it to Morrissey, who stepped forward and took it. The deputy then read the brief prepared for him, scanned the pages, before closing it and tucking beneath his arm.

"Your target will be extremely dangerous," Gendo added, "so you must be prepared to deal with him, but I want him _alive_."

"We can deal with high-risk targets like him, sir," Morrissey answered, "and I believe that you have read the rest of my résumé."

Indeed Gendo knew that, in Morrissey's previous career as an intelligence officer he'd been involved in snatching terrorist cell members and leaders in the dead of night, and in a rare occasion, a narco-dictator of a South American country wanted with a bounty by several countries.

"This is what you were trained for, Mister Morrissey," Gendo emphasized.

Morrissey nodded. "Yes, Commander. That's true."

"If you and your men accomplish this, and hand him over to me without a scratch, I will guarantee that your salary will be improved on once you take over Hamamoto's position."

The deputy director breathed easy. "Thank you, Commander. We'll do what you say," Morrissey answered before saluting.

Gendo nodded. "As soon as I give the word, you are to act on it immediately."

"Yes, sir. No problem."

"You are dismissed. Thank you, Mister Morrissey," Gendo concluded.

Once Morrissey left the office and entered the elevator, he thought of the name and the face that leaped off the dossier, but then he decided that this was no different from the other missions he had in the past.

_No, it's just like the old days_, he thought, and then he played the name _Kaworu Nagisa_ around his brain.

* * *

Both interrupted, Misato and Ritsuko heard the knocking on the door. The head scientist called out, asking, "Who is it?"

"Hyuga," the voice answered from behind the door.

"Come in," Ritsuko said, and Makoto walked in. In his hand he held a folder sandwiching what looked to be a bunch of printouts.

"Thought you might want to know," Makoto said to Misato, as he tabled the folder and the older woman laid it out for her to read. "They're my assessments of what the SSDF has in store at the moment," he added.

The first few pages were culled directly from _Jane's World Armies_, laying out the current status of the Strategic Self-Defense Force.

Ever since Second Impact, the Strategic Self-Defense Force had doubled in size, in manpower, firepower and equipment, after the Japanese constitution was revised, including Article 9, which stated that all military forces should be organized purely for defensive purposes, that Japan must not obtain powerful weaponry for purposes other than for home defense, and that all weapons in possession must be within lawful limits.

At the moment, despite criticism from some of its neighbors, the SSDF had much more _offensive_ firepower at its disposal than ever before, including non-nuclear ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, battle-cruisers, bombers and fuel-air explosive bombs; in essence, the SSDF was anything but _defensive_ in name_._

Reading on, Misato noted that currently the SSDF had concentrated its most hardened divisions around the Hakone region, by land, air and sea:

**SSDF Ground Units (Gotenba / Mishima / Odawara / Numazu):  
**Armored Unit (Type 90 Main Battle Tank 120mm, Type 86 APC, Type 96 Anti-Tank IFV, Type 88 Armored Car) x 2 divisions  
Artillery & Rocket Unit (Type 97 SAM Launcher, Type 202 Howitzer NLSF Vehicle 160mm, Type 04 MLRS Launcher) x 2 divisions  
Transport Unit (Type 92 Transport Service Truck, Type 95 Patrol Vehicle) x 4 divisions  
Command Unit (Type 206 Advanced Mobile C3I Center)  
Ground Infantry Forces x 4 divisions  
Special Operations Unit x 2 battalions

**SSDF Air Units (Mishima / Atsugi / Odawara):  
**JF-6M Mitsubishi Reisen (Zero) II Air Superiority Fighter (Athena ECM, stealth) x 4 squadrons of 10 aircraft each  
F-15J McDonnell Douglas/Mitsubishi Peace Eagle x 8 sq of 10 a/c each  
JF-2 General Dynamics/Mitsubishi Shinden II Strike Fighter x 6 sq of 10 a/c each  
E-3J Boeing Sentry AEW (airborne early warning) Aircraft x 2  
EP-3J Lockheed Orion Electronic Warfare Aircraft x 2  
P-3J Lockheed Orion ASW Patrol Aircraft x 2 sq of 5 a/c each (surface attack configuration)  
AV-24J Lockheed/Kawasaki Cheyenne (Shogun) II Heavy Attack Gunship x 4 sq of 10 a/c each  
AH-1J Bell Cobra Attack Helicopter x 20  
JAH-6 Ninja Light Attack/Recon Helicopter x 15  
CH-47J Chinook Heavy Transport Helicopter x 20  
UH-60J Sikorsky Blackhawk Light Transport Helicopter x 30  
C-130J Lockheed Hercules Medium Transport (bomber capable) x 10  
JC-1 Kawasaki Troop Light Transport (bomber capable) x 15

**SSDF Sea Units (Suruga Bay / Sagami Bay):  
**Atago (Arleigh Burke) Class DDG Destroyer (VLS, Aegis, Upgraded) x 6  
Kirishima (Arleigh Burke) Class DDG Destroyer (VLS, Aegis) x 8  
Shin-Musashi Class CG Heavy Cruiser (VLS, Aegis, 6-in long-range electromagnetic railgun) x 4  
Tomahawk SLCM (with conventional or N2 warhead) x 80  
Munetoki Class LHA Helicopter Carrier x 6 (plus LCAC landing craft x 6)

Finding that this array of forces was overwhelmingly powerful, Misato groaned and told Makoto, "What if… What if we find ourselves confronting against an attacker of this size?"

At Misato's rather unusual assertion, Makoto blinked in astonishment: it was unimaginable that he, a Japanese national, could be taking aim at his fellow countryman once more. Indeed, it was generations since the last yet brief civil war, called the Boshin War of 1868-1869, fought with cannons, rifles, sabers, daikatana and bayonets, in skirmishes between the newly-established Meiji forces and the troops of the outlawed Tokugawa shogunate, leaving floods of blood to irrigate the rice fields.

"Are you kidding? I mean, you think we could be in a shooting war anytime soon? Against our own government?" Makoto doubted loudly.

Misato shook her head. "No, not really," she countered. "It's just a 'what if'."

"No, why they could be our enemy?" Ritsuko asked. "We've been working with them ever since Shinji first came here, and other than that little issue we had with that positron sniper rifle, which was settled for afterwards… I don't think we warrant anything bigger that could piss them off."

But then Misato answered, "You and I should wonder why they put up a force so large," she said. "I'm not sure about the government's real reasons for placing the _Jietai_ outside our backyard, even as what they claim in the news. So what if they found out the true purpose of our Evas?" _Jietai _was the shortened name for the SSDF.

Silence fell upon the trio, as they contemplated the unthinkable.

"It falls upon us to do something about this," Makoto said.

Misato and Ritsuko nodded, before the raven-haired woman said, "We may have the will to change all this, but we've got to find a way to stop this madness, or we could be staring at the barrel of a gun."

Misato then sighed and added, "I'll see what we could do."

Makoto nodded. "Right, and as you said before, getting to know what poker school we're in."

For a moment Misato took her time to think. As part of her martial studies, she once read the entirety of Sun Tzu's _Art of War_, which one of strategist's famous dictums said that in a defensive position, all her forces must be placed deeper in the ground.

She played with the possibility of the national government and the SSDF going hostile on them, using her imagination to think of what they would do in case should those military forces try to break in.

"So, suppose they make the decision to assault us, what they'll be doing first?" Misato asked.

"Breach into every gate and passageway we have, then they send in the troops," Makoto answered.

"Correct, but we still have several advantages, though," Misato said. "One, most of our blast doors are more than a meter thick, which should deter most kinds of munitions, save for a direct hit with a bunker-buster bomb with a penetrator warhead, and we can also disable the locks; two, ground vehicles will have to use the elevators and the linear trains, and we can also knock them out of commission before they could use them; three, if my memory serves me right, any attacker not used to the Geofront's layout will lose himself; and finally, we can flood every passageway with Bakelite, which should stop them in their tracks."

"But…" Makoto interjected, "What about the N2s? What if they launched one against us? They still have about a dozen of them."

That one caught Misato unawares. "You mean a direct hit right on top of us?"

Makoto nodded. "Yeah. As you can see, Unit Zero had left a huge crater right up there, and that explosion took the upper half of the armor plating away, and weakened the rest, which means that if they use an N2, which we know that it has a yield of two to three kilotons, that blast would literally rip out whatever overhead protection we have left."

"Shit," Misato cursed. "Once that happens, we're literally sitting ducks if they follow it up with bombs and missiles raining down our heads, before bringing in a siege force by air."

Now she drummed her fingers on the table, trying to figure out another way to defend themselves while minimizing casualties.

"We have our trump card, though," Misato said. "Apart from our new arsenal, the mere presence of an Eva or two will scare them to shit in their pants… and oh, speaking of an arsenal, what do we have for trigger fingers right now?"

Makoto grinned. "Just for you to know, I have also included the inventory list from yesterday's shipping manifest."

Misato flipped the pages to get to the list and read closely. She was initially impressed by the largess on the list:

_**WEAPONS SHIPMENT**__ – Inventory Listing 1, Infantry Weapons and Equipment  
__**Set 1 / Assault Rifles:**__ Colt M4A1 (1,800 pieces)  
__**Set 2 / Submachine Guns:**__ H&K MP5A4 (1,000 pieces), H&K MP7 (new, 200 pieces), FN P90 (new, 500 pieces)  
__**Set 3 / Machine Guns / SAW:**__ FN M249 Minimi (60 pieces), FN M240 (60 pieces), Browning M2 (20 pieces)  
__**Set 4 / Launchers:**__ H&K XM320 grenade launcher (200 pieces), LAW anti-tank launcher (70 pieces); AT-4 anti-tank launcher (50 pieces)  
__**Set 5 / Explosives:**__ C4 (50 lots, including blasting caps, detonators, det cord), Claymore (100 sets, with det cord and clackers)  
__**Set 6 / Sniper Rifles:**__ H&K MSG90A1 (20 pieces), Barrett M82A4 (10 pieces)  
__**Set 7 / Pistols:**__ Glock 17 (2,000 pieces, surplus), H&K USP (1,000 pieces), USP MK23 (100 pieces)_  
_All weapons include matching ammunition, additional equipment and/or accessories, with certification and servicing records._

"We still have some heavy artillery of our own, though," Makoto helpfully suggested. "The munitions we use against the Angels, most of which we have anti-aircraft and SAM batteries right around the Geofront, some light armored vehicles, and of course our Cheyennes."

"This list is good, yet…" Misato trailed off, laying down the manifest on the desk as she turned her attention to Makoto. "Do we have enough qualified personnel to carry, and if possible, fire these weapons?" she asked.

Makoto nodded, before adjusting his glasses. "Sure," he answered. "Less than half of our people have any prior military background before coming here, including those with actual combat experience."

Misato reclined back on her seat, sighed, and then she said, "We may sound ready, but it'll be up to those two Commanders to decide what we have to do next… Only once they give us a chance and an ear, because this is clearly a grave situation we're dealing with."

* * *

Having said their farewells to their classmates, then signed off and shut down the computer, Shinji and Asuka were now lying on the bed, feeling jaded, wondering what else they wanted to do next with so much time left. At the moment the iPod on the desk, with a speaker plugged to it, was playing one of Shinji's favorite tracks from the _Ys _image album.

Asuka sighed, and said, "I'm bored."

The mere phrase reminded Shinji of their first kiss ever, and he laughed nervously.

"Why you're laughing, dummy?" Asuka questioned, frowning in reaction.

"It's… It's because back there you thought I had bad breath," Shinji answered, recalling that Asuka gargled like mad after their botched first kiss.

"And you're a lousy kisser, too," Asuka retorted back, and then snorted, crossing her arms across the chest. "Never mind, do you want it again?"

"Again?" he asked doubtfully.

Asuka turned to Shinji, facing the boy and stared into his eyes languidly. "Bet you want more than that, don't you?" she teased.

Shinji's heart rate doubled this time, and he blushed a bit. "More?"

Without warning Asuka got up and sat on the bed, before she pulled up the boy by his arms. "I'm giving you a better chance this time," she declared.

_What the heck she's talking about?_ Shinji thought, before he spoke, "For what?"

Asuka leaned forward and she whispered, "How about we do _it_ right now?"

This time Shinji looked flabbergasted, as the word _it_ probably meant _sex, _and his face was now flaming red. "It?" he mumbled.

The girl shook her head. "Show me what you have and I'll show you mine," Asuka said, paraphrasing a nice quote she once came across on a blog.

"Uh… Okay," Shinji answered, taking a deep breath first, and then she pulled the boy towards her and kissed him on the lips.

In the next few more seconds Shinji complied and pressed further, his lips exploring hers, until Asuka whispered, "Wait."

Disengaging to pause, he watched Asuka pull up the sundress over her head and tossed it aside, leaving her wearing only panties and bra. With that shocking gesture Shinji could feel his heart's jackhammer, the blood in his veins going on full blast, and his mouth gaped wide open in total astonishment.

"I… I… Uh…" Shinji stuttered in near shock.

Asuka can only laugh out loud, watching Shinji's flabbergasted reaction, and then she said, "You haven't seen me like this?"

Shinji shook his head, yet his brain was totally racked with what to do next. "No, really!" he nervously blurted. "Tell me… No, don't tell me we're about to do _it!_"

The boy's confusion and discomfiture only served to amuse and make Asuka laugh a lot more. "Good God, have you gone through some sex ed?" she asked. "Something's wrong with the curriculum, isn't it?"

"Uh… It must be," Shinji answered as though stupefied, but without warning Asuka grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head, before tossing it away onto the floor.

Now bare-chested, Shinji swallowed hard, heart throbbing, really unsure what to do, but he tried his best to remember how situations such as this are handled properly… in the movies. He then took a deep breath, centered himself and with his eyes slowly took stock of Asuka's body, as she held herself still for him to let his eyes do some exploration.

To begin with, her matching underwear had a pink floral rose print all over, bits of lace and silk; her strapless bra kept her chest at bay, but barely as she was still undergoing her growth spurt, and her bosom was growing steadily, forming an impressive cleavage. He then moved his stare downwards, slowly and carefully, and focused on her crotch just below her abdomen.

Her crotch, that forbidden territory hidden behind that patch of cotton and silk. The prize, the crown jewels, the wildest dream of all dreams made true, that every boy of his age talked about so much, behind closed doors, in water closets, under the trees, reading forbidden adult manga and magazines in bedrooms, and yet only a few have barely able to go this far.

Like now.

Again Shinji swallowed, with a big deal of nervous eagerness he had not seen in himself before. All other personal events were shelved, whether they were his triumphs or tragedies, and forgotten, with all of his thoughts focused on this single opportunity that…

_Why can't I?_ Shinji thought, feeling the need to slap himself or pinch his cheeks to make sure he wasn't dreaming.  
_Why not?  
This is real. This is really happening…_

As if she heard him, Asuka whispered, "Touch me."

* * *

On the other hand and almost naked, despite her seemingly calm demeanor in introducing Shinji to the joys of making his "first time", Asuka herself was just as tense as the young man, as she felt her heart thumping hard, while trying to control her composure and breathing.

To be honest, she _never_ had a real sexual encounter, but before she attempted to have someone seduce her… and failed.

Her idea of sex was something she watched on video, the typical movie couple falling for each other after a drunken night at the bar, perfect strangers who barely knew who they were except for the brief exchange of introductions followed by some interesting conversation, Asuka watched one of those onscreen inebriated couples slowly kiss, then touch each other as they disrobed, savoring each other's presence and aura, before lying down on the bed to couple in heated passion till the light of dawn.

Was Asuka ready to do what fiction told her? Could Shinji follow her into the unknown depths of losing their virginity?

There was a lot riding on, and so Asuka, sitting still, watched Shinji carefully and slowly extend his hand closer to her shoulder, wanting him to touch and caress her skin, then maybe for another kiss, before she would let him glide his lips along her neck and downward…

Asuka closed her eyes in anticipation, hoping that Shinji had the sense to show his love and affection, and then she felt his fingers and the bed moving slightly as Shinji adjusted himself to come close, and hopefully take her in for a ride...

* * *

Suddenly without warning both Children heard the loud ringing on the door, and that really startled them completely, causing Shinji to withdraw his hand from Asuka as they turned to scrutinize the source of the racket. All of that nervous anticipation, the growing tension and excitement between the lovers instantly vanished, replaced by complete annoyance accompanied by their surprise.

"What the hell?" Asuka demanded, totally disrupted, as she covered her chest with arms across, like as if someone peeped through the keyhole and caught them in the act.

Deciding to take matters in his own hands, Shinji called almost loudly, "Who is it?"

"It's Nagisa," Kaworu answered from behind the door. "I have Ayanami with me," he added.

For a few seconds, the two Children stared at each other, having a double-take, and then…

"Oh, shit!" Asuka cursed under her breath.

"C'mon, dress up!" Shinji rejoined, as they quickly scrambled on the floor to pick up their clothes, and struggled to get dressed.

In about ten seconds they stood before the door, and Shinji unlocked it to find Rei and Kaworu confronting them, eye to eye. In his hand was the metal box, now inside a plastic bag which he asked for at the Reception Desk while on their way.

"We are sorry for disturbing you," Rei said.

Asuka blinked, wondering what was going on, and, noticing Kaworu's parcel, she asked, "What's that box? I thought you two were going..."

Nonchalantly Kaworu noted that the other couple's faces were blushing. "What's going on with the both of you, too?" he questioned curiously.

Shinji shrugged. "N… Well… Nothing," he answered, trying to pick the correct response.

Kaworu turned to Rei and he simply smiled, as if signaling to her that something occurred between Asuka and Shinji, before he faced the boy again.

"I see," Kaworu said, as they stepped into the quarters. "We found this box, but we need Katsuragi to see this."

Asuka took note of the embossed kanji on the box, as it belonged to Kaji. She sighed and asked Kaworu, "Where did you find it?"

"I tripped on it as we were about to leave, and I dug it up," Kaworu answered as he pulled the box out of the plastic bag, took a newspaper and spread it beneath to keep the tatami mat from being soiled, before he laid the box on the floor. He then unshod his backpack and set it aside.

"Okay," Asuka cut in as she stood up, walked over and grabbed her cellphone from the bedside table, then dialed the number. "I'm gonna call Misato right now," she added.

* * *

The quiet atmosphere within Ritsuko's lab was broken when Misato's phone went off. The woman pulled it out of her pocket, recognized Asuka's phone number on display, and answered, "Yeah?"

"Thought you might want to come down here," Asuka answered.

Misato blinked. "What?" she demanded.

"Kaworu has found something."

"I thought he and Rei were going to her home?"

Asuka voiced a sigh and replied, "That has just changed."

"Okay, I'll be there in a jiffy," Misato said.

"No problem," Asuka answered, before disconnecting the call.

Pocketing the phone back, the woman now looked around and leaned to Ritsuko, who was about to return to her job of analyzing the synchro data. "I'd better go," Misato said. "Something's up with the Children."

Ritsuko nodded. "Okay, I'll handle my end here. Tell me once you get back here."

"Thanks," Misato agreed, before turning to Makoto. "You go check up with Section Two, and give me a finding on what's up with the government and the _Jietai._ I also authorize you to send up a UAV to eyeball those units."

"No problem," Makoto accepted, as he adjusted his glasses. "It'll be a cinch."

* * *

After some ten minutes, Misato walked into their quarters to find the Children waiting for her, sitting on the tatami mat, clustered around the mystery box.

"What's that?" Misato asked, curious about the artifact that Kaworu brought in.

"It belonged to Kaji," Kaworu answered.

Misato blinked. "What? How… where did you find it?"

Kaworu explained as to how he discovered the box by accident, before he said, "It has his name on it, so I think it would be important for you to see what's inside."

The woman thought of it for a moment, and then she said, "Can I have a moment alone? You can go get something to drink or whatever."

"But…" Shinji trailed off.

Misato shook her head. "This is too personal, and I have to see this for myself."

The boy sighed. "Okay, if that what you want."

"Thank you," Misato answered with a sad smile as she watched her charges walk out of the door, leaving her alone. Once she had the whole place to herself, Misato steeled herself not to cry as she began to open the lid on the box.

* * *

Out in the hallway, Shinji decided that they will have to wait at the lounge and grab themselves drinks from the vending machines.

As Shinji bought himself a Coke, he said, "I just hope she shouldn't take it hard this time."

"Yeah," Asuka agreed, picking up a bottle of Calpis from the bin. "I wonder what's inside that box," she added while unscrewing the cap.

Rei said nothing but took a sip of her canned tea instead.

"Not until she shows to us whatever that's inside," Kaworu said, before he pulled the tab off his can of iced coffee.

* * *

Back in their quarters, with the box opened, revealing that it was stuffed with many notes, Misato figured that Kaji, being an intelligence agent, knew that he had voluminous amounts of information that he must hoard and process, and his use of notes probably meant that not all agents were capable of photographic memory.

The first thing she recalled was the last phone message he left, and back then she didn't realized that it was his last will and testament, couched in wordplay, telling her where she was supposed to find what Kaji claimed to be the truth of the conspiracy behind the scenes.

She then picked up one of the notes, and read off what appeared to be a transcript of a bugged conversation:

_TRANSCRIPT OF CONVERSATION - 05/24/2015 (check audio file)  
Me: Undercover military bases are usually made underground. Am I wrong? At least in TV animations I used to watch. And so they dug here. "Undercover" doesn't fit the sunlight. And then?  
Source 64: Which one do you want to know? The outline of the Human Instrumentality Project? Or the truth of Second Impact? Or the aim of the ANGEL? Or the relationship between ADAM and LILITH and EVA? Or the identity of the men called the Committee? Or that of what we call "the spear"? Or the aim of Commander Ikari. Or. Or. Or. Or...  
Me: OK, that's enough. Cut it out. You must have got it. As long as you have a secret, a question will chase it.  
S64: You'd better take what you see for the truth.  
Me: Am I wrong?  
S64: Well...  
Me: Now it is my turn. What is the door for, opening or closing?  
S64: What do you think? Don't look at me like that.  
Me: This is a very important question for me. Especially in here, the deepest underground, there are so many doors.  
S64: Well, well, well. What do you think?  
Me: If you'd like to say, "I don't know", how about this instead? "The door should be opened by force." That's the reason. That's why I'm here._

_That's what Kaji was aiming for,_ Misato thought, before she picked another scrap of notepaper, on which a poem was scribbled in English and in his own longhand:

_Blue is the color of the nerves  
Purple is the color of the priest costume  
Red is the color of the arteries  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
The colors come into my sight  
The illumination of a gunfight  
Grey is the color of bombing  
Taste of rust spreading in my mouth  
Feeling rigid rocks beneath my feet  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
Drumming of primitive ages  
Rhythm of insanity  
Dance of the giants  
Holding guns of madness  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
When humans were not humans  
When they were neighbor of beasts  
Memories were carved in their brain  
With a knife of fury  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
The arms  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
The legs  
Dang, Dang, Dang  
The eyes  
Dancing giants: colored in blue, purple, and red  
This is the village of the giants  
There live the gods expelled from heaven's seats  
Still is the sun shining above their heads _

_How appropriate,_ Misato mused sadly. Kaji was canny to pick metaphors for the Evas, as he wondered about the true purpose of those beasts. She then recalled how Kaji, being a half-assed reincarnation of a hippie perhaps, used to dabble in poetry back in college, and even had some written and submitted for the varsity paper.

Along with that poem was a undated comment in the next page, secured with a paper clip:

_This was totally different from the battlefields I have ever known. I've seen Korea, Iran, Vietnam, Falkland Islands, and so on. No wonder there is a difference between them. You know the battlefields, where the people hurt each other and stain the ground with their blood. But this place is completely different. In here soldiers may seem human to you, but in fact they are not. The wall prevents anyone without an AT Field from coming over. You see neither tanks nor fighters. Throwing a dark shadow on your eyes, there goes a Giant. A multiple human-shaped fatal weapon; that is a humanoid called EVANGELION. The enemy are unidentified creatures with Angels' name. Seeing them fighting, it looks like a mad combative game. It is Pankration at the risk of the fate of the fate of human beings. TOKYO-3 is made a stage for the battle. We know there lived the slaves killing each other for fame. Are we insane spectators doomed to watch this sad and cruel game? _

There was a third note just behind that, and it read, turning out to be a short draft of a report about the Evas:

_EVA-00 Prototype. It is produced as an experimental model, the first Evangelion. The operator Rei Ayanami. Out of control right after starting and temporarily suspended. After suspension back to the battle field and terribly damaged. Afterward fixed the equipment and color coating, back again._

_EVA-01 Test Type. The model produced with actual fighting in view. The operator, Shinji Ikari. Sent to the battle field immediately without testing. Even though a great deal of damage and out of control, succeeded in destroying the enemy._

_EVA-02 The first production model. The operator, Asuka Langley Soryu. The model assembled in Germany._

_There are some peculiarities to be mentioned about EVA-01. It made unbelievable results in actual fighting. Besides Commander Ikari's attachment and persistence, this model seems to be primarily protected. But it has been sent to fight so many times. Their intention unidentified. There is a possibility that they let it go out of control intentionally. We have to be careful about exchanging experiment between these Evas. Some doubts about choosing the operators. Keep an eye on the Marduk Institute._

_P.S.: Check again the record of the accident of Gendo Ikari's wife, Yui._

Now Misato scratched her head, and wondered who Yui Ikari was, as that name was underlined twice.

Yui Ikari. Shinji's mother, a brilliant, legendary woman who, some old-timers here say, died in an accident years before Misato came here. The majority of personnel who worked here don't know her much except for the few remnants of Gehirn, especially Fuyutsuki, who offered her some tantalizing tidbits about Yui Ikari as they drank, watching the moon-dappled Hakone nightscape before them.

_Yet… Exactly who was she?_ Misato asked herself as she set those notes aside, before she figured that Kaji might have something else on that woman, mixed somewhere in the box.

There was yet another note… no, a poem in Kaji's handwriting, and Misato read closely until she got to the bottom:

…_You'll always end up in this city. Don't hope for things elsewhere:  
there's no ship for you, there's no road.  
Now that you've wasted your life here, in this small corner,  
you've destroyed it everywhere in the world._

_C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933), The City  
(Translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard)_

The poem, probably quoted from a book, was a perfect pick, very appropriate to describe Shinji's character, and by extension, Misato's own personality, that of trying to run away, shirk responsibility, turn away their eyes… and yet couldn't escape at all that they're all forced to face the music.

Probing further into the depths of the note-filled box, Misato's hand found a 4-gigabyte SD card in its protective shell and pulled it out. With two fingers, she held it up in the light and stared, wondering if this could have much in store than she ever cobbled up while trying to uncover the mysteries surrounding NERV…

Perhaps this memory card held more than the little one that Kaji had left for her.

Whoever made up that old saw, _dead men tell tales,_ rang true now, and Misato was grateful for it.

"This," Misato whispered to herself, before she set the memory card aside, and reached for another piece of paper… but then she hesitated to think.

_Why I can't just let these kids know? Why hide all of this?_ She pondered.

_It's been long that they were center of it all, yet… If they don't know their true purpose for being here, then what's the point of withholding all of Kaji's secrets from them? _

Misato thought of Asuka's long association with Kaji, and thus she, like her, might also a heir to all of that man's secrets. Then perhaps Kaji have probably trusted Shinji just as he gave the same gesture towards her, and thus he also has the right to hear the truth.

_No, _Misato shook her head. _I'm not the only one who deserves to have this… This might be the right time that they must learn more, for what Kaji had left for me is a forewarning._

* * *

Still at the lounge, and sitting on couches, Kaworu and Rei explained to Shinji and Asuka on how they found the box, and then the Fifth Children asked, "Tell me, does Misato keep a… what do you call this? An answering machine?"

Shinji, reclined almost lazily, nodded. "Well, yeah… But… She hid it after Kaji died," he answered. "Why?"

Kaworu would like to say how he knew about Kaji's last message, that it devastated Misato, not knowing at the time that it was also coded to ask Misato to find his treasure trove.

The gray-haired boy merely shrugged. "Just curious," he said, but decided that a subject change would be fine. "Say… I saw you two blushing, so again, what's going on between you two? What's the big deal?"

Asuka and Shinji blinked, and then replied, "Nothing."

Kaworu smiled. "A secret, perhaps."

"Close enough," Asuka answered as she, having unshorn her shoes, tried to crack the knuckles of her toes against the tiled floor. "Lovers' secret. Can't tell you or I might knock you down cold."

"Sorry for being too intrusive," Kaworu apologized, and then he chuckled.

Asuka shook her head instead. _He's poking his nose into too many things, _she thought.

But just as she was about to empty her bottle of Calpis, Misato showed up, standing at the lounge door_._

All four Children turned their gaze at their superior officer and Shinji asked, "What's wrong?"

Misato sighed and then said, "You guys have the right to know. Let's go, for I want to show you what's inside that box."

* * *

After Fuyutsuki spilled the beans on what he knew of SEELE, Hamamoto could only manage wonderment right on his face as the Sub-Commander gave him a moment to mull upon.

"So… What you're saying is… We're working for a bunch of geezers with an agenda?" the Second Section director asked.

"That's right," Fuyutsuki replied.

Hamamoto snorted. "I didn't know that there was some truth to what those conspiracy theory nuts tell about for years," he said. "But tell me, what's the use for the Human Instrumentality Plan and why?"

"Honestly, in a nutshell they wanted a perfect world."

"Impossible. I've heard of such bullshit, mostly from idealists who thought they could create the perfect society, a paradise on earth, yet they all fell short of their own expectations that more often they either got bored or killed themselves, because men are individualistic. About the only perfect world one will get is when their number is up… the big sleep, and the forever dream on the other side. Now what shall we must do?"

The old man looked at his watch, a rather beat-up Seiko chronograph he kept since graduation from college, a gift from his long-dead parents.

"I'd say we maintain yellow alert status… and half of our security forces will have to be on their toes," he recommended.

"With weapons?"

"Yes. Loaded at all times. We can't allow to go slack this time."

"Okay, sir. That'll be done," Hamamoto accepted as he picked up a pen and scribbled a note for the all assigned platoon leaders to follow later. He also added a reminder that all vital installations – communications, countermeasures, gates and all – will have to be kept on guard, even if it meant there may be no break until tomorrow morning.

Fuyutsuki nodded, before he said, "First of all, I still have some respect for your work, even if it's imperfect."

Hamamoto nodded. "I'm aware of that, sir."

"You may have done some mistakes before, but forget all that, for there's a clear and present danger, one that we don't think we'll be able to avoid."

The old director blinked. "What do you mean?"

"To be frank, have you have anything against me?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"No," Hamamoto said. "Of all leaders I came across in my lifetime, I think you're neither political nor ambitious. Instead, you're a different character, an intellectual; a man like you would've preferred to be in the background yet circumstances force you to be a leader. You're a doer, more of a teacher, and… you don't terrorize your subordinates. Finally, about the only vice you still do is reading."

"Thank you," Fuyutsuki said, took a breath and then questioned, "So… Do you trust my judgment this time?"

"I do now," Hamamoto answered, nodding, but he wanted the old man to go straight to the point. "What do you want me to do?"

This time Fuyutsuki switched to a whisper and said, "This may border on treason, but… I want your people to keep a close watch on the Commander, and if he's about to do something that could possibly imperil humanity... as much as I am his right hand, I'm afraid that sooner or later we will have to protect him from himself."

Inwardly Fuyutsuki didn't want to say the word _arrest_, and he felt torn inside on deciding the best course of action to end this madness, but it seemed that Hamamoto caught on it by watching the old man's body language, facial and lip movements, showing hesitation, and the old director asked, "You… You want us to stop Commander Ikari?"

"If possible, yes," Fuyutsuki said.

Hamamoto sighed and he said, "Give me a few minutes to decide, sir."

Fuyutsuki nodded, as Hamamoto looked up to the ceiling and pondered.

On one hand Fuyutsuki was ordering him a command that amounted to treason, short of a palace coup, a mutiny within the ranks, to betray his only closest friend and pupil… but on the other hand, Hamamoto wondered if Ikari was leading them all to the wrong direction, and what if they didn't do the right thing once it turned out that this Human Instrumentality Plan could be a sham, a false promise, or the end of everything?

He recalled his previous readings of history, of monarchs and dictators who promised prosperity and happiness to people under their rule, Pied Pipers with the iron fist while playing the music of lies, and then later led them to ruin either with economic or political instability or war. Hitler and Mussolini were such examples, followed by a succession of communist strongmen who, in their lust for power in the name of idealism, drove their people to their deaths, destruction and poverty.

Was Gendo Ikari such a man?

Time and again, Hamamoto made character analyses of the people he worked with or he kept tabs on, and in this case Ikari was a man who kept to himself most of his secrets, had a single-minded goal, and…

He thought of something: does Ikari's character flaw has to do with the death of his wife?

No doubt, Hamamoto thought. It's one thing to be inspired to become a better person after the death of a loved one, yet another if it's deep-seated revenge against fate.

Hamamoto once remembered, in his few days as a director, secretly snooping on Ikari's personal background, trying to see if that man had any skeletons in the closet, and indeed he found some, including the Commander's violent past history, with a dysfunctional family, a fling with alcohol, yet even with such a flawed life, and a long record of assault and battery in the National Police files, he somehow managed to enter Kyoto University with smarts and fought all the way to win his doctorate.

It could only be done with a little influence, as he had a very influential uncle who was then high up in the government and thus pulled the right strings in the university, the National Police and city hall. The same thing happened when Ikari, then prior to the establishment of NERV, was later implicated in what appeared to be a major accident involving his wife, and Ikari was absolved of all charges of negligence and mismanagement.

But Ikari remained, in Hamamoto's opinion, a driven man who was willing to cut corners, cheat, steal and lie just to get what he wanted, and more. Ikari was also a no-nonsense man, cold and clinical, who had no qualms about doing what guts it took to build a fledgling small organization into an agency that was practically a nation and a law unto itself; he had no sentimentality nor feelings towards his son or that Langley girl, not even flinching or blinking as this young man was forced to go through pain and suffering at the cost of NERV's advancement … yet Ikari invested much of his attention towards Ayanami, as though he made himself a father figure for that girl…

Hamamoto groaned at how his thoughts had veered that far, and told himself, _What kind of a father who neglects his son? _

He then recalled that Joseph Stalin, during World War II, was even said to tell his subordinates callously that he had no son after being informed of that young artillery officer – his son Yaakov – was captured and imprisoned in the hands of the Nazis.

Oh, yeah, speaking of the Nazis… Hitler, prior to becoming the lunatic leader of a short-lived Third Reich, was a mediocre painter with a huge ego problem… and every strongman possessed past history of personal failure and anger, embittered and lowly, outraged at fate, wanting to be better than most… but most of all, they wanted the masses to worship them as demigods, as if their ascension to absolute power would erase all of their transgressions away and then do as they wished, either reward a friend or destroy an enemy, with total impunity.

The parallels between those despots and Ikari were thus startling that Hamamoto now shuddered at his own conclusion… the perfect ingredients necessary to create a _false prophet._

A madman.

And what kept Hamamoto to his post, however, right until this very moment, was his loyalty to the Commander, for he admired his no-nonsense approach to everything he did, without hesitation, remorse nor conscience. All for the common good, he was told.

But the truth that Fuyutsuki told him today… has finally convinced him that Ikari was going too far; what would happen if Ikari led them to utter death and destruction in the end, much in the same way that Japan and Germany did to themselves back in the last war?

And what about this conglomerate called SEELE? Are they leading this world to that same conclusion? A possible second renaissance of mankind or…

Doomsday?

Hamamoto took a deep breath and voiced out the biggest decision of his life, as he was now willing to break the rules he and his department had enforced for years.

"Okay, sir… But when?" Hamamoto asked.

"When I tell you so," Fuyutsuki answered. "When the opportunity presents itself… But all in all, I'd rather live in a world steeped in sin, than live in the future they might soon give to us and against our will."

"You're right," Hamamoto agreed.

* * *

Back in their quarters, they all gathered around Misato's laptop, as she inserted the SD card into the slot found on the side, accessed the card and, in a directory listing of the card's contents, found a single video file among a bunch of compressed ZIP files. Curiously, Misato opened the file with a media player, and in playback they found themselves watching Kaji staring back at them onscreen.

With the customary light-blue shirt and loosened tie, stubble on his chin, the ponytailed hair, and a calm look on his face, Kaji was drinking from a can of UCC Black, like a parody of a TV advertisement of the same coffee brand. Misato also took note of the time and date of the recording – it was more than two weeks ago, and the time displayed by Kaji's camera was 6:45 in the morning. As for his surroundings, he was in the kitchen, with the morning sun streaming in from the balcony, shining on the whitewashed walls; whether it was a hotel or an apartment or somewhere… Misato couldn't tell. Just behind him, his service automatic H&K USP 9mm – exactly the same model as her sidearm – was on the kitchen counter, with the 14-round double-stack clip and a Galco holster besides it, and some cleaning tools surrounding the weapon.

"_Hi, Katsuragi…"_ Kaji began, before he made a grin that lit up his face. He looked as if the prospect of his later fate in Oda's hands was no big deal – death was, sadly, part of his occupational hazard. _"If you're watching this, then I'm afraid that I'm dead by now."_

Misato grimaced, but Kaworu asked as he watched the man arrange his notes on the counter, "Is that Kaji?"

The woman nodded. "Yeah… He's speaking from the grave."

"I see," Rei said.

"_If you have found this box buried beneath my watermelons and flowers, and everything inside's intact,"_ Kaji continued, _"it means that you finally figured out the last message I made on your answering machine."_

"Thank you," Misato whispered.

"_And if you have Shinji and Asuka with you," Kaji went on, "no problem; they also have the right to know what's happening here… and oh, Asuka, don't worry about me, okay?"_

"Okay," Asuka said as Shinji held her hand for emotional support.

"_Ah… and Shinji, if you're watching with Katsuragi, I hope what I'll say will answer some of your gnawing questions, especially as you've been wondering for so long as to what's driving your father to become what he is today."_

The young man nodded in response.

Onscreen, Kaji paused to finish his coffee, drinking straight, and then made a three-point shot with the can into an unseen wastebasket. They could all hear the dull thud of the can hitting the bottom of that basket, followed by Kaji's upraised arms.

"_Three points!"_ Kaji cheered, before he turned to face the camera again, took a breath as he picked up his notes, and continued. "Now… Let's see, what I'm gonna have to tell you today… Oh, yeah, the tell-all that you're all been waiting for.

"_To begin with, you see, the one thing that bothered me now, as I woke up, was my ID card. Yeah, each time I look at it, it looks like blood was printed on it. Kind of a… premonition._

"_Now to make things clear, you guessed well for whom I was working for: the government and NERV… Yet I also left out the fact that I'm supposed to work on behalf of the Committee, which by now, you have figured out who's behind it… So that makes me a triple agent, doing things and little errands for these big boys."_

"I know," Misato acknowledged, as Kaji looked to his notes and spoke.

"_My supposed employers are known under the name SEELE, and the main man running it for years, his name is Keel Lorenz, chairman of the Human Instrumentality Project."_

As he looked on, Kaworu said nothing except to nod.

While Rei watched nonchalantly, Shinji and Asuka leaned forward, as if they wanted to make sure they were hearing everything correctly.

"_Officially,_" Kaji said, _"Lorenz is the president of Hegelmann Holdings, which encompasses much of Europe's industries, anywhere from arms production to electronics, telecommunications, heavy industry, transportation, aerospace, mining and petroleum, real estate, banking, food production and consumer products… well, everything, especially pharmaceuticals and genetic engineering."_

Misato picked up several photos from the box, possibly taken by Kaji through telephoto lens, which showed what appeared to be a man in his eighties, wearing impossibly large wrap-around glasses as he was being ushered by his aides into a waiting stretch limo, flanked by two large SUVs front and aft. Written on one photo was the name "Lorenz".

"_To the public, he's a former refugee who's been around for more than fifty years… or even more, as he had no official birth records, probably destroyed during the last war. My research, however, suggests that he was a son of a Dresden military industrialist, in cahoots with Hitler as one of the Nazi financial backers back in the 1930s, and as expected by the regime, he joined the Hitler Youth, then later on found himself fighting the Russians in Berlin, until he surrendered and was imprisoned for a few months before, because of his bad back, was released for humanitarian reasons… perhaps someone up in the Kremlin had pulled some strings, but I'll never know._

"_After the war, Lorenz then emigrated to the United States, got into Yale with a double degree in medicine and biology, graduated and stayed with a pharmaceutical firm for five years, then went back to Germany, only to see that the Russians had taken over half of the country, including his hometown. So instead, in Stuttgart and at the height of the Cold War, he and several new partners took over Hegelmann, then a struggling medical firm, and turned it into a major pharmaceutical player._

Kaji took a breather, and he said, "I'd like to tell you more, but to cut the story short, Lorenz built an empire, piece by piece, one at a time… He's that patient, you know.

"_Behind the scenes, however, Lorenz is currently the twenty-forth High Master of SEELE, as the position is either inherited or a new leader is selected by vote from the membership, depending on the choice of his predecessor. The eleven members of the circle and their immediate successors, on the other hand, are hand-picked on the basis of their extreme wealth, knowledge and wide-ranging influence, and their ability for discretion, which is why some members don't quite appear in the news."_

Indeed, in Misato's hands was a paper containing the membership roster of the entire Committee; some of them were familiar, and others were obscure. One or two were well-known two-digit billionaires in America; a name of a former KGB officer who is now the head of a Russian energy company; another was a diamond magnate in South Africa; a sheik in the Gulf States, known for his immense petroleum holdings; and more names went on… the document alone was explosive, and dimly Misato remembered that there was a similar treatise that allegedly claimed that a religious sect was a part of a conspiracy for world domination.

As if he heard her thoughts, Kaji said, _"Forget anything you know from the conspiracy buffs; the Illuminati, the 'New World Order', the so-called 'Protocols'… are nothing but fairy tales compared to SEELE, as they actually have this insanely big-ass power to decide world events, tell the major powers what they should be doing, and of course toy around with the United Nations and NERV, and if I'm dead now because of what I'm telling you right now, then my death only serves to validate the extent of their control._

"_Just as I thought I don't know much about them back when I was starting to work for those geezers, to be sure somehow I managed to obtain in Vienna a copy of a document containing their history. It's gone now, as it was damned old, made of papyrus, and falling apart, but I was able to scan it, page by page… It's called _The Book of Seven Eyes_. Besides, I have also have some more recent information to support it."_

Promptly Misato set the media player to 'pause', and went back to the window listing the files in the memory card; indeed, one large ZIP file – named _Seven Eyes _– had hundreds of scanned pages in PNG format. Misato decided that this file will be read later, before she resumed playback, watching Kaji pick up several more of his notes, and started to talk about his own cut-down version of SEELE's voluminous life history.

SEELE began life as a secret society and a religious order during the medieval Dark Ages. The first High Master was a German noble known as, according to _The Seven Eyes_, Heinrich Bayard, who was simultaneously an alchemist and a fastidious scholar. Out of a need for preservation, in the face of widespread ignorance, he and his followers created the circle whose objectives were to seek out and preserve knowledge, to exert influence, and to obtain ultimate divinity of man.

Their dogma was the Path to Adam Kadmon — that is, the approaching of a divinity both ageless and undying.

In the same manuscript, SEELE also obtained untold amounts of wealth, purportedly the remains of King Solomon's treasure cache rescued from the sacking of Jerusalem, and the bulk of scrolls from what used to be the Library of Alexandria also became their other wealth; the circle used this wealth of riches and knowledge to bring the other kingdoms and orders under their control while maintaining total secrecy; any attempts at exposure resulted in death to the offender.

_The Seven Eyes_ stated that SEELE was partly responsible for the Renaissance, in which they gave out small tidbits of their extraordinary knowledge to the Italian princes, who in turn capitalized on it by means of study and dissemination.

When threatened by the Vatican or other enemies, SEELE responded in kind – by employing assassins to bring down opponents without remorse, and at the same time use their influence and inside men to shape or misshape the policies of the Church, nobles, and other powerful entities. From there, SEELE slowly progressed as it expanded, encroaching its power over Europe, unencumbered by changes in dynasties, kingdoms, empires and wars, as it made itself the secret power behind every throne.

By the late 19th century, interest in the occult was high, especially in Europe, and many influential people sought to acquire occult and mystic knowledge. But only certain personages decided that some of that knowledge be put to use, believing that it could advance mankind in different ways. Among them was Keel Lorenz's grandfather, an enormously prominent German industrialist identified with SEELE, and a fierce believer in the Kabala.

It was claimed in some quarters that World War I, and before that the farcical number of military treaties, was a result of manipulation by SEELE, for the arms industry to maximize their profits: their first application of war as a means to benefit the members' business concerns.

Later, the rise of Nazi Germany and Hitler's sudden interest in the occult after reading few quatrains of Nostradamus had Keel's father involved. The senior Lorenz sought to use Hitler's influence and enormous monetary and military clout to study other military applications of occult knowledge, such as telepathy for assassination and communication, but the dictator was greatly absorbed in attempting world domination using conventional warfare. Eventually the senior Lorenz committed suicide after Hitler's defeat, frustrated at that dictator's unwillingness to utilize occult knowledge, leaving young Keel to fend for himself, fighting the Soviets as Berlin slowly succumbed to the invaders.

Even as a prisoner of war, and suffered an injury, Keel remained steadfast in his beliefs until somehow an official ordered him released, went over to the American side as a refugee, and from there he began to live a second life in Massachusetts, where he quietly rebuilt SEELE with the remaining membership, and in the process obtained the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls.

Keel later returned to Germany with the secret texts, took over a pharmaceutical company, and using the Scrolls as a basis, laid out the framework for the Human Instrumentality Project as he and his followers carefully reconsolidated SEELE's supreme power over the world. Decades later SEELE, in accordance to their prophecy, would create the Artificial Evolution Laboratory, a cover name for Gehirn, followed on later by the establishment of NERV.

"_Now that I've told you all about them,"_ Kaji said onscreen, as he was finished giving the history lecture and set aside the SEELE dossier on the counter behind him, _"if you're still sticking around, Shinji, then it's high time to say that I have found many things about your parents."_

Shinji now leaned closer to the laptop screen, and willed himself to listen.

From whatever records Kaji was able to weasel out of government archives, especially the Ministry of Education, the University of Kyoto, and the National Police, further enhanced by several interviews (using his own false identity as a journalist / researcher / credit investigator) with some people who once either their neighbors, or studied or worked with him, Gendo Rokobungi was a son of a typical salaryman and a typical housewife; the stereotypical depiction of a Japanese family, circa 1980s.

Yet Gendo's life was anything but typical, as their neighbors attested that they really had a dysfunctional existence: husband goes home drunk, wife yells at him, followed by domestic violence… and Gendo didn't seem to mind at all, as he left home in time for school, and returned late at night, probably a session at a cram study center.

Gendo's former classmates, from primary school to junior high to high school to college, now grown folks, admitted that he was a complete contradiction: on one hand he was so damned smart, sailing through examinations in minutes as if it was no more than a quiz, that Gendo should be eligible for any scholarship to a big-name university; but his character and personality was disagreeable, if not provokingly hostile, and the same ex-classmates said that Gendo frequently got into fistfights, and he won some and lost others.

Kaji paused for a while, to grab and open another can of coffee, before he shook out a stick from his pack of red-and-white Marlboros and lit. He took a drag, producing a cloud of nicotine-and-tobacco smoke that wreathed him around momentarily before he resumed talking.

For some odd reason, his interviewees said, some girls gravitated to Gendo, despite his contradictory behavior, and later the same girls walked away crying and brokenhearted, apparently unable to fulfill what he wanted in the opposite sex.

Those who studied with Gendo at Kyoto said that he was a fastidious bioengineering student by day, and a bad-ass street brawler at night, and often after a barroom fight Gendo was to be found spending the night in the local police station, before being released on bail from an unknown beneficiary. One graduate, a doctor now, commented sourly that Gendo was a total sonofabitch, seemed to have this single-minded drive of a shark, to do anything to be on top of his field; other classmates said that it took guts to study alongside with Gendo, for his attitude and intellect seemed to scare and intimidate them, and by extension, terrorized his professors. Perhaps, Kaji asserted, Gendo was determined to bury the past completely by studying intensively, and his brilliance went unnoticed by some influential people they don't know of, which explained for Gendo's regular patronization of the jail cell without even a formal criminal case filed against him.

Anyway, of all things that Gendo's ex-classmates noted, the biggest shock to come upon them was when he started dating Yui Ikari, who was then the top genetic engineering student in campus. They also wondered why a woman that beautiful and smart would go out with a man known to use either his head or fists, only later they found out that Gendo became a different man – he turned real soft and madly in love – whenever he was with Yui Ikari.

The last time they heard of Gendo was when after he received his diploma on graduation day, a representative from some pharmaceutical company hired him on the spot, and that was it. Kaji filled that void with his own snooping work, however, that Gendo became an high-ranking employee for the Japanese branch of Hegelmann Pharma; officially he was to work in a lab, but in reality he was often called in to work on some unspecified and mysterious projects, one of which was responsible for the cataclysm at Antarctica.

Kaji went on reciting his dossier on Gendo Ikari, from his involvement with the Adam excavation, to his multiple leading roles in operating the Artificial Evolution Laboratory, which was a cover for Gehirn, and later SEELE promoted him as Commander of NERV. There were, of course, some discrepancies, such as Gendo's annual salary, which was greater than what was paid for the average scientist at a private firm.

Then Kaji mentioned about the supposed accident which took the life of Yui Ikari, and spoke in detail the copy of an after-incident report on the incident, which even made it into the news, with even some newspaper clippings to prove. The incident and the controversial aftermath that followed, became a catalyst for Gendo to lay out his own proposal: the Human Instrumentality Project.

"That made sense," Shinji muttered. "That explains why he's acting like that."

Misato agreed with a nod.

At that point, Kaji said that he can now talk about Yui Ikari and her mysterious origins.

To begin with, Yui Ikari, born Yui Saint-Clair, was a daughter of a high-profile and extremely wealthy French tycoon, and a Japanese biologist who was a candidate for the Nobel Prize for her discoveries in genetics. She was, of course, schooled first in France, then to fulfill her mother's wishes, moved to Japan and enrolled at Kyoto University to continue her doctorate studies on bioengineering.

But tragedy struck when Yui's parents died in a mysterious car accident, leaving her an orphan yet her father, who turned out to be a secret affiliate of SEELE, made her eligible for membership, and thus became the youngest within the cabal.

At around the same time Yui first met Gendo Rokobungi just as she was trying to move on with her life, and for some odd reason she gravitated towards the man despite the controversy surrounding his personal conduct, unaware of the fact that Gendo discovered her connections to SEELE, wanting to gain membership and the same privileges she enjoyed within that secret society.

From whatever scant records that Kaji could find, according to one written account of a SEELE member, Yui was a very outspoken character at meetings, often finding herself locking horns with Chairman Keel Lorenz on the issue of humanity's destiny and how they interpreted the Scrolls, arguing that humanity still has a chance at salvation without having to resort to devolution or destruction. The same member said that with her arguments and reasons contrary to the views of the Chairman, Yui was marked for 'erasure', SEELE's euphemism for assassination.

Perhaps, Kaji figured, this might explain why Yui made the fateful decision to become the guinea pig for the contact experiment with Unit-01, to save the project she was working on, and also perhaps why the Commander was paying much attention to the development of the Evas.

"…_and, oh, if Asuka's watching this," _Kaji said afterwards,_ "perhaps you would like to find out about your mom's involvement into this matter."_

Now it was Asuka's turn to be surprised.

"_You see, like Shinji's mom, about ten years ago your mother was a test subject for the development of Unit Two; same procedure except they changed some of the test parameters so as not to repeat what happened to Unit One. Unfortunately, although your mom was in one piece physically, according to eyewitness accounts and incident reports, the maternal part of her soul was absorbed by Unit Two, causing catastrophic psychological damage that they were forced to put her into an institution."_

_Kaji then sighed and added, "I think you already know the rest of the story, whose details I'm not going to bother with. Still, if you want to get closer to the truth, I've included files on your mom – and Shinji's – so that you can read them… and I want you to remember that you have to come to terms with your past."_

Asuka nodded, and she whispered, "I will."

"_Once you finally understand what I said back when we were at the ship, I hope this time you'll be able to know that there's more to life than Eva, that as you break the walls around you, you can find real happiness than mere acquisition of knowledge or that tendency of yours to throw that weight around. Always be a good girl, okay? Be yourself."_

Kaji gave her a smile and added, _"If you're with Shinji, I know you two make a very fine couple… It's because I feel he'll mature enough to understand the world around him, and that even if he couldn't say much, I believe that he likes you. Trust me, I hope that both of you would do one notch better than me and Katsuragi, that you'll not repeat the dumb mistakes we made throughout our lives._

Slowly, Asuka reached out for Shinji's hand and held it.

"_Katsuragi… I'm sorry if I had to resort to all this cloak-and-dagger stuff, but this is one of the few options left for me to hand you over the truth. Don't get mad, just do the right thing even as I'm about to face the consequences of my own doing… and don't give up either, for I hope you could stop this runaway train before it crashes. It's up to you to change all of this, for the sake of the future._

"Thank you," Misato mumbled back.

"_But if someone else has this box other than you, and they're watching right now… I hope they'll burn."_

Kaji now smiled wanly and he leaned closer to the camera.

"_By the way, if you're wondering about the words that I'm supposed to say after all those years … Forgive me for everything I did, but I love you, Misato… and be careful out there."_

There was silence after the video concluded, as all five of them let the truth sink into their thoughts, pondering, trying to piece all of the factoids together, creating a single coherent picture.

"What do you guys think?" Misato asked, breaking the silence as she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to cry this time.

"I can't say anymore," Shinji replied, but then he shook his head, and anguished, "No, it makes sense. All of it, even if… Oh, my… Mom did all that, thinking it was for the future! But what for? Why it has to be me? No…"

Shinji then felt dizzy, cradling his face upon hands, the sheer weight of the facts had finally hit him hard. His parents… They were both indeed involved into this grand scheme, but he wasn't sure how far they have gone to, playing a game with a powerful man he, for the first time, saw who he was, what he did to the world, and was ultimately responsible for the creation of the organization that he was supposed to fight on their behalf.

He looked up and gazed at his companions, who were watching him. They all looked concerned, and he remembered Asuka telling him perhaps twice that he was in the spotlight, center stage, the lone cello player who must entertain the audience, out to judge his performance.

_What audience?_ Shinji asked himself, and it dawned upon him that he was the one Eva pilot who commandeered the deadliest weapon ever built, which was supposedly meant to make war on behalf of humanity.

Humanity, he realized, was his audience, and all of it was hinged upon the decisions he made.

Now if he performed badly for the last time before this audience, there may be no future for him and everyone else… But if he could do it right once more, and succeeded, perhaps when all this was over he could have the peace and normalcy he longed for; he wanted to live like every other 14-year-old kid, wishing to savor a life that did not involve the smell of burning flesh, spilt blood, and powdered concrete, or to hear orders over the comlink, telling him to take down the Angel with all means necessary.

But, no, there was no escaping, no place to run away from, as he did twice before, and destiny had put him into the cockpit seat. Apart from his fate, until then this war was not yet over, and there would be more pain and suffering to endure before they all could have their peace.

Shinji sighed, and he said, "There's no way for me."

Misato blinked. "What are you talking about? Are you all right?"

"Y… Yeah, I'm okay. I just feel overwhelmed," he admitted, before straightening out. "I realized what or why Mom did all this for me."

"Go on," Kaworu said, trying to encourage him to speak up. It was his first time to say a few words after he watched the video in silence.

"I think back then she could not do what I'm supposed to do right now. Perhaps she sacrificed herself in the process to make her work succeed; perhaps there are many reasons that I don't know yet…"

"Unfinished business, perhaps?" Kaworu suggested.

Shinji nodded. "Maybe… Maybe that's why I feel she's in Unit One, protecting me, just as you've said. So there's not much of a choice for me except to stay, perhaps I was meant to be here because I think Mom needs me to finish what she started, not because Father or that… Whatever that Lorenz man wants."

"Which is why right now we're making plans to stop your father," Misato said. "They want you Children to pilot those Evas to accomplish their objective, which is the Human Instrumentality Plan."

"What that means?" Shinji asked.

"Supposedly," Misato said as she shook her head, "the so-called next step for humanity. Yet that plan is _not _for our benefit, but for those old men, and possibly what your father is going after."

"Mom, right?"

But Misato wasn't done yet, as she brought out a piece of paper, which was dated months ago and in Kaji's handwriting:

_Delivered Adam to Ikari, having used the naval convoy for Unit-02 to piggyback on as cover. Not sure what the hell he's going to do with it, but given how important that thing is, I have a feeling he might soon harness its power for whatever he has in mind. Makes me think of _Frankenstein_. Damn scary._

She then passed the note to the Children, who took turns reading, before it was returned into her hands. Misato then said, "As you can see, Shinji, your father is currently in possession of Adam, which is no doubt has a role to play in Instrumentality soon... if we don't stop him."

"And so we should catch him—"

Misato shook her head. "Impossible. He's still very much in control, and if we act too fast we'll fail. We need to time it right and convince some people before he could exploit Adam for his own end."

Asuka and Shinji could only manage a frustrated sigh.

"She's right," Kaworu said. "Let's be patient."

There was silence among them for a moment, until Shinji turned his attention to the Fifth Children and questioned, "What do you say about this?"

"Me?" Kaworu responded, before he mulled over the other boy's question. _I don't know how much Kaji knows about SEELE, or… even about me. _

He looked back at the other couple, watching him. _Yet what if they find out? How they'll react? _

Kaworu remembered about him and Shinji talking about betrayal. He was now worried about Shinji going sour on him, if ever the masquerade he carefully constructed around him, and the friendship he forged between him and that boy was shattered by any of Kaji's revelations. Therefore, he must come up with a plan in case that happens.

_I can still explain to them, even if they could get angry. After all, nothing really bad happened when I admitted to Rei and Misato about myself. I can also tell that it's no longer my business to follow whatever Keel tells me to do; what I care about is making Shinji happy._

_It's been… what? Five days, six… and… Goodness, I wish I could make this friendship last longer. I wish it was never my destiny to subjugate._

The Fifth Children sighed, and he said, "It'll be our task soon to avert this nightmare, in anyway we could. Mankind has enough of tribulation, of fear, doubt and uncertainty, and what kind of future Lorenz will give us?"

At the mention of his master's name, Kaworu pondered about the vow he made to betray the very man who raised him, after realizing what humanity truly needed and deserved.

"After all of what Kaji has told us, it is not the destiny of mankind to be rewarded extinction." _And the Lilin will always seek repentance for their errors, especially for the opening of Pandora's Box that is the Second Impact, and other transgressions, _he added_, _and stared at Shinji.

"My brother, I understand that you wanted a normal life, isn't it?"

The other women blinked at the mere mention of the word _brother._

Shinji nodded. "Yeah… I've been waiting."

"If you want to get to it, we still have a crucible to go through," Kaworu said.

The other boy shrugged. "I know… But it's not over yet, because we don't know when the next Angel could strike."

_So he's still waiting for me,_ Kaworu thought sadly, before an idea came up. Time to change the subject, and besides, why the need to put Shinji through yet another lecture as to why he needs to be the hero of his life's play in the stage of the world?

"Say, aren't you interested in seeing what your mother really looks like?" Kaworu suggested.

Shinji suddenly brightened up. "Oh, of course!" he exclaimed.

As if on cue, Misato's hands flew to the laptop's keyboard and opened the window to the SD card.

There was a folder in the card that was named _Ikari Yui_, and Misato opened it to see an array of files inside. She then double-clicked on a picture, and it showed a woman, brown-haired, wearing a lab coat over a pink blouse and a navy-blue skirt. She looked calm and collected, serenely smiling at the camera as though she was a notch better than the _Mona Lisa._

Shinji blinked. He couldn't believe that this was how...

He glanced at his mom's picture onscreen, and back to Rei, who was sitting silently but looking at the visage, and eyes darting back again. Shinji was now making rapid facial comparisons between Rei and his mom… and although with a complete difference in age, hair and eye color, and perhaps even their personalities, there was an uncanny resemblance between the two women.

_Mom…? Ayanami…? They look almost the… same?_

Shinji looked up to Asuka, and her face registered utter amazement, as if telling him, mouthing the words silently, _Is the Wondergirl… Your twin sister?_

The Third Children nodded, for all of his long-standing suspicions about the First Children has finally became truth.

* * *

Rei, on the other hand, was staring back at a face that was eerily familiar, as if looking into a mirror; the woman's brown hair was shaped almost like hers, a facial expression that was gentle and serene, and the eyes seem to possess intelligence…

_Who are you?_ Rei asked silently, her heart was pounding and within her head, something was cut loose from the murky depths, information long dormant and unconscious, and they all came instantly in a flood:

"_I'm also thinking about making a home… I mean, if I could meet a nice person."  
"Oh, Professor, he's such a cute man… it's just that no one knows it."  
"SEELE and Gehirn, the organizations for preventing the final tragedy."  
"All things happen as they must. That is why I'm with SEELE for Shinji's sake..."  
"That's why. I want to show my child the bright future."_

And as her mind began to spin, nausea taking over, images from the past flashed before her imagination's eyes:

_Yui and Gendo, in an embrace as they kissed and danced right on the bed.  
Yui breastfeeding Shinji in her arms.  
Yui walking with Shinji in tow, as they came through the gates of a kindergarten school.  
Yui clad in what appeared to be a prototype of a plug suit, and sitting right in an entry plug._

Finally, one memory leaped out from this train of images:

"_Have you decided on a name?" Gendo asked, as he and Yui were standing by the railing of the balcony of their apartment, in a city somewhere._

_Consciously Yui stroked the roundness of her abdomen, as though she was assuring the unborn within her womb of a destiny that would come, and she answered, "If it's a boy, Shinji…"_

"_If it's a girl… then Rei."_

One moment, Rei was silent, but in the next her eyelids began to flutter, and then eyes rolled upwards, as if she was about to faint. She wanted to speak, but nothing came out of her mouth except for a low moan.

"Rei?" Kaworu asked, as he was the first to notice the girl's strange behavior.

"Ayanami, what's wrong…?" Shinji whispered, with Asuka and Misato visibly surprised, before Rei slammed back-first onto the tatami mat, and she lost consciousness right there.

* * *

In her lab and with a cigarette in hand, Ritsuko was still analyzing the sync data coming from Asuka and Unit-02, displayed on her computer monitor, trying to figure out how that girl managed to regain all that she lost in the last few weeks, when the phone on her desk rang loud, completely disrupting her train of thought.

Immediately she crushed the cigarette into the ashtray, grabbed the phone and said, "Yes, this is Doctor Akagi speaking, may I—"

"Ritsuko!" Misato answered back, cutting the doctor off. "I need you, Natsumi and some paramedics to come down here… We have a problem with Rei."

That really brought Ritsuko standing on her feet, and her hand almost collided with her half-full mug of coffee. "What?" she exclaimed.

"I don't know, but she blacked out."

"And what the heck she's doing there with you?"

"We were watching Kaji's last confession."

Ritsuko blinked. "You mean…?"

"Yeah, Kaji was spilling all the beans for our benefit; he left us a gift."

"Okay, we're coming," Ritsuko replied, cut off Misato, then made a call to the Infirmary for paramedics, before placing the receiver back to the cradle and rushed out of the lab.

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **I'm sorry if it was so long in coming to return, as in my absence, real-life issues and a serious writer's block have almost stopped me from picking up the fic again; took much to fight off distractions and whatnot in the weeks after the last but…

Welcome to the Third Season of Light and Water, and this probably is the longest (and possibly the hard-hitting or insane, call it what you want) chapter I produced, perhaps to make up for lost time. It also took me time to come up with this chapter, thinking of what happens next, and it's never easy. IMHO, it's hard to write when I get tired after a long day of housework, and I'm not kidding.

To my readers, I'll try to keep on writing, and whatever comments or criticisms you have, I'm still open… and by the way, expect more of the unexpected.

Belated Merry Christmas and an advanced Happy New Year.


	32. REIncarnation

_Naked and almost dazed, Rei was floating in this imaginary ocean, just like before, as bubbles swirled around and over her head. The vast blue of this unknown ocean of the subconscious had enveloped her, and once more she didn't know how she came here._

_The last image she saw before was staring at the face of a woman who she had never seen in her entire life, and then asked, Who are you? _

_The question somehow unlocked a thousand secrets laid hidden in her subconscious. How they came to exist, she didn't understand._

Who is this?  
Who am I?  
What am I?  
What am I?  
What am I?  
What am I?

_Those questions that have sometimes pricked her consciousness, as Rei tried to reassert her own identity._

_Sure, Kaworu already told her that she possessed the soul of Lilith within, yet Rei didn't realize, until now, she was an entirely different person, with a distinct memory._

_Names flashed before her eyes, then faces, places, dates, facts and figures… For a brief moment she saw herself standing, and dressed once again in her school uniform, before the façade of a large stone church… No, a monumentally-huge cathedral towering over, decorated with weathered statues, gargoyles, stained glass windows, and it was flanked by a pair of equally big bell towers._

_Rei turned around and gazed at what looked like a tower in the horizon, and it reminded her of a similar structure she saw in a history book, but it didn't look like the Tokyo Tower, once a prominent landmark before that metropolis was destroyed, first by a tsunami, and then completely obliterated in a nuclear attack, before sinking slowly into the contaminated mud along with the buildings that surrounded it, forever lost and out of reach._

_No, this tower was grey and brown steel, painted with primer, not the red and white paint scheme that characterized the steel skeleton of the Tokyo Tower for decades. _

_What is this tower, then?_

_Furthermore, the buildings, built out of brownstone and red tiles, all look strange and beautiful to her, not like the little houses of Tokyo-3 that had tiled roofs and wooden walls._

_Then, where was she? What city? This was no place in Japan… It could be anywhere._

_Rei wandered her eyes around the seemingly quiet and serene surroundings, trying to guess her exact location. Just opposite the cathedral was a wide river, with bluish-green water glistening in the sunlight, before an elongated boat of some sort cut through the water, making waves and eddies as its engines throbbed almost quietly. There was also the distant sound of a horn or two, before a chain of barges passed by, pulled by a tugboat upstream, followed by the distinctive two-tone siren of an emergency vehicle somewhere, probably a police car or an ambulance._

_Yet there was no person in sight; even the vessels in the river were devoid of people and crew._

Where am I?

_At the same time the cathedral's bells pealed the time of the day, a flash of light blinded her, and the next thing she knew she was standing on a floor that appeared to be made of clear glass; and below that a framework of steel beams leading downwards to a single nadir, connected to a very small pyramid; the framework also formed a larger inverted pyramid._

_She could also see what was beneath the floor, brightly lit and flanked by paintings and other works of art that she could not recognize as art; to her, art was somewhat she only learned at school, but unable to appreciate or understand its significance._

_But between her feet was a bronze disk, engraved with the letters 'N' and 'S', signifying north and south, and this disk was directly aligned with the pyramid's apex below her._

_Strange, Rei told herself as she slowly gazed up and around, finding three long buildings, made of weathered brownstone and adorned with windows of a grandiose design, flank this vast square of glass and steel; and right before her was yet another glass pyramid, only it was erected right before the façade of the central building, a twin of the inverted pyramid._

_Both pyramids now reminded her of the distinctive Headquarters pyramid, the focal point of the Geofront, the supposed fortress of NERV, hiding secrets that only a few ever know of._

_Rei blinked twice in astonishment, wondering if she was still dreaming or was actually transported to this beautiful and haunting location by some untold power. This was too vivid for a dream._

"_Rei?"_

_A woman's voice, certainly not that of Doctor Akagi, not of Colonel Katsuragi, not even belonging to Doctor Odani or any of the other older women she came across… this voice calling her name was different, and yet the intonation was a bit familiar, with a hint of warmness, congeniality, and this was a mother's voice._

_Almost it was like her voice, only more mature, and she was using her first name, as if making it very personal._

_Rei turned around to confront the speaker, and there she was._

_Not unlike before, when she saw a twisted version of herself in a dream, grinning and leering with unnaturally huge eyes._

_Instead, this personage was dressed in a laboratory coat over a purple sweater and a midnight blue skirt, this woman had brown short hair, a gently curved face, dark green eyes that exuded friendliness, and her lips formed in a motherly smile. Most astonishingly, the woman seemed to exuding a bright aura emanating from her silhouette._

_For a microsecond, Rei's heart seemed to have stopped in wonderment, before asking with those three words: "Who are you?"_

_But before she could get a reply, the dream world abruptly changed as a blinding flash of light enveloped her._

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 32: **REI**NCARNATION  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 2/8/2011 23:08 a2/p2

* * *

In the real world, Rei was on a gurney, being pushed by a pair of paramedics as they rushed her to the Infirmary, where Ritsuko and Natsumi were waiting for them at the emergency room.

Her companions trailed after, completely worried. Not wanting to miss a chance to show the two doctors their discovery, however, Misato took her laptop with Kaji's SD card still loaded in the slot, and as if that wasn't enough, Shinji snatched the box and carried it with him.

By the time they made it before the ER doors, Ritsuko let Misato enter to watch the proceedings and maybe let her friend explain, while the other three Children decided to wait outside at the corridor by sitting on the bench. Meanwhile, Natsumi inwardly noted that Rei was about to set a new record amongst the Children for having the _most visits_ to the Infirmary, putting Shinji in second place.

Once they loaded Rei onto the table, Ritsuko quickly pulled out a stethoscope, hooked it up to her ears before doing the preliminary checks on the girl's vital signs by unbuttoning her blouse.

"What the hell happened?" Ritsuko asked Misato as she placed the scope on Rei's chest where she could hear the girl's heartbeat and breathing rhythm.

"Damn, I don't know but she fainted when she saw that picture of Shinji's mom," Misato answered as she placed the laptop onto one of the tables.

Ritsuko was surprised, causing her to pause for a moment. "What?"

Misato pried open the laptop on the table, spun it around and showed to her the contents of her screen: Yui Ikari's picture.

"Hey, that's her," Ritsuko said, recognizing the face. "She supposedly died in a contact experiment several years ago."

"Who's she?" Natsumi asked while writing down her initial findings on a clipboard.

Ritsuko sighed. "That's Yui Ikari, the Commander's late wife… and Shinji's mom."

"Oh," Natsumi blurted, before she had a penlight open and pointed its beam onto each of Rei's eyes, open wide with the doctor's fingers, trying to assess the girl's reaction to the light. "Look at this," she said.

"What?" Misato questioned.

"No reaction," Natsumi remarked. "She still has rapid eye movement… Seems that she's completely in a trance."

"Heart rate and breathing normal," Ritsuko reported, before she tried to wake up the girl with a shake to the shoulders. Nothing. Tried tapping Rei's cheeks. No reaction once again. Went back to the eyes, raised the eyelids and found both eyeballs moving jerkily.

Rei was experiencing rapid eye movement or REM, in a complete state of unconsciousness that no external stimuli could budge to wake her up, and at the moment Ritsuko didn't have anything strong enough to snap Rei out and back to the real world.

Misato frowned. "Now what?"

"I'd better hook her up to an EEG machine, see what's she's going through," Ritsuko said as she walked over to one of the pieces of medical equipment standing around the ER, and pulled the electroencephalograph monitor close to Rei's gurney. "This is no ordinary case of fainting," she added.

The woman officer nodded. "Okay."

"So, what else have you found?" Ritsuko asked, bringing out a pack of electrodes and then plugged them into the EEG monitor, before nodding to Natsumi to tape the electrodes onto specific spots on Rei's scalp.

"Well… Kaworu found a box hidden in Kaji's garden and brought it in. When I checked what was inside, it was full of anything that Kaji had collected for God knows how long he dug for secrets."

Ritsuko now flipped on the EEG monitor, instantly booting up and the display was alive with brainwave data. "What he's doing out there?" she questioned, referring to Kaworu.

"That boy? I think that after I told him yesterday that I couldn't water Kaji's plants, he made an errand to do it, and so he brought Rei with him. They were supposed to head off to her flat afterwards, but instead they found that box and hauled it back to me."

"Now where's that box?"

"It's with Shinji. He's waiting outside. Can't afford to see that go into the wrong hands."

"Ah," Ritsuko mumbled. "Okay, for now let's see what she's up to in dreamland," she added, gesturing at the display, scraggly lines generated by the brain pulses.

_

* * *

When Rei opened her eyes again, she was in a different place. She looked around, trying to guess again where she was, and she wondered where the mysterious woman had gone. _

_She was standing in the middle of a vast lawn, manicured and verdant grass, and she could see wide pathways leading as far as her eyes can gaze, and at the far end was the same unfamiliar tower rising up to the sky. The sun was up in the sky, and Rei could also feel the breeze._

_It was a huge park of some kind, but this time it was filled with people; some were lounging on the lawn and having a picnic, others were sitting on benches, and most of them were walking around. They looked happy, in peace, or for some, engaged in a kiss, as if this park was an intimation of heaven. The air was also filled with laughter, whispers, and a thousand words that she couldn't discern what tongue they were speaking in; all she understood was Japanese, English and (because of her bioengineering books) some German._

_And then Rei saw a couple pass by, with a six-year-old girl prancing around. The mother was wearing a blue shirt over a light cotton dress, and she was holding her husband's hand; the father was in a button-up shirt and a pair of beige slacks; and the girl was clad in a light blue shirt and a pair of jeans. Father was Caucasian-looking, the mother seemed to be Japanese in appearance, and so was the girl. _

_On closer look at the girl, Rei noted that she had the same hair style as the earlier apparition, yet the girl was also laughing, pointing out landmarks as the family ambled by._

_But what was really striking about the girl was that she looked exactly like Rei's first iteration._

"_Who are you?" Rei asked again, but they didn't seem to notice her presence as if she was invisible. Instead she could hear them talking, and fortunately for her the family was talking in full-on Japanese._

"_Papa," the girl asked, looking anxious. "I feel hungry."_

_The father blinked and he stooped down. "What?"_

"_Isn't it almost lunchtime?"_

_He glanced at his watch and said, "Don't worry, my little Yui. We're almost done, and soon enough we'll be eating."_

_Rei blinked this time, at the mere mention of the girl's name: Yui._

"_Where?" Yui asked._

_The father stood up and pointed at the tower. "You know, there's a restaurant right up there at the Eiffel."_

_Yui was suddenly excited. "Really?"_

"_Yes, they do, and from there, while we eat we can see the rest of Paris, completely spread out as far as the eye can see."_

_Paris… Rei was now trying to figure out where and when she had last heard of this place and the name sounded vaguely familiar. For all she knew and in her entire life Rei had never ventured far into the outside world, beyond the Geofront and Tokyo-3._

_She remembered that sometimes the Commander would tell her that he would leave for a flight to another side of the world, to meet with people she didn't know or what business they had with NERV._

_Rei was watching the family leave her when she thought she heard a couple talking behind her back. She turned around, and suddenly the world changed again, this time Rei was standing in the middle of a classroom._

_It had the typical layout of desks, chairs and the whiteboard that was behind the teacher's desk._

_Yet this wasn't like the classroom that she came in every morning; this wasn't 2-A, because there were diagrams and posters tacked on, with illustrations of DNA and RNA sequences, organic compounds, and the depiction of the Big Bang._

_Furthermore, the man sitting in the teacher's chair was none other than Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, but he looked younger than he was now; his hair was dark grey, not almost white. His face was also nearly devoid of the age lines that he had today, and at this very moment he was checking papers piled on his desk when, without him expecting he heard the knocking on the door._

"_Come in," Fuyutsuki said, putting down his pen._

_The door opened and a woman walked in, carrying a folder in her hands, and this time wearing a white coat over her light floral-patterned dress. It was this Yui again, but older than the kindergartener she saw earlier, and Rei guessed that she was roughly younger than Colonel Katsuragi._

"_Good morning, Professor," Yui greeted before she bowed._

"_Good morning, and I'm Professor Fuyutsuki," Fuyutsuki said, nodding back and smiled as he introduced himself. "What brings you here?" he asked, but then blinked. "Oh, I forgot, someone said that you were looking for me, am I right?"_

"_Yes, sir," Yui said as she walked up to the desk and set the folder on top of it. Fuyutsuki picked it up and read the contents._

_For a few minutes he skimmed at first, and then he went back to the first page and read closely while Yui watched him, waiting as she sat down on an empty chair. Only after twenty minutes did he said, "Your report is rather unusual, considering that you're only a new student."_

_Yui stood up and nodded. "Thank you very much, sir."_

_Fuyutsuki scratched his head, as though he was trying to guess, and then asked, "Tell me, are you really the daughter of Saeko Ikari, the Nobel Prize nominee?"_

"_That's right," Yui confirmed._

"_Oh… I see," Fuyutsuki blurted, and then chuckled. "So you are—"_

_Yui sighed, smiled and then she answered, "I'm Yui Ikari Saint-Clair."_

_Fuyutsuki grinned and nodded approvingly, before he lifted the folder in his hand. "Miss Saint-Clair… er, Miss Ikari, I maybe tempted to ask a few questions, but to be honest, your report is quite stimulating. I mean, only a few students in my class had ever managed to produce something worthwhile as yours, and as far as I'm concerned, you're not even yet enrolled in my course."_

"_But my course somehow extends to other disciplines, which is why I came here to see if there's any merit in my report."_

"_Ah," Fuyutsuki sighed as he glanced at the wall clock. "Say, why don't you join me for lunch and then we talk?" he suggested._

_Yui nodded. "Hm, why not?"_

* * *

As though Rei was watching a film, the scene was quickly cut to another scene, this time in a traditional restaurant, almost full of diners, both floors, up and down, packed to the rafters.

_

* * *

With their plates emptied, waiting to be picked up by a passing waiter, Fuyutsuki and Yui were talking this time. While eating, Fuyutsuki explained to Yui that he was a friend of the owner, who managed to secure a table for two of them; previously the professor used this table to dine and confer with other academics in his field of interest. _

"_I'm a bit concerned about where you could wind up once you get your doctorate," Fuyutsuki said, changing the subject as he toyed with the swizzle stick of his iced tea. "What are you going to do afterwards? Are you going to apply for a job at some company or a lab?"_

_Yui shrugged. "I'm still trying to make up my mind, but I may have a third choice to consider."_

_Fuyutsuki blinked. "Hm?"_

"_I'm still young, sir, but I also wanted to have a bit of stability."_

"_Like what?"_

_Yui paused for a moment to take a sip of her tea. "I'm thinking of getting married, and only when I meet someone nice," she said._

_Fuyutsuki frowned. "Yet, considering just how advanced your report is, you have a promising career ahead of you."_

"_You sound just like my mother," Yui said, sounding as if Fuyutsuki was a prude. "You worry about that?"_

"_No, I'm sorry, but it's just that you're being so talented and then waste it all by getting married. That's what I'm concerned about you. If you graduate, all those companies and labs would be asking for you as if requesting for your hand in marriage; they think you're a gold mine."_

"_I don't think whatever I learned for the past six years can be forgotten, and I don't care about the money either. Instead I can try to work, do what I'm better at, and at the same time learn how to raise a child."_

"_How can you handle that?" Fuyutsuki asked, sounding incredulous._

"_I'm the only child," Yui said. "I apologize but my parents are dead now… They died in a car accident two months ago, so right now I'm staying with my aunt here."_

_This time Fuyutsuki looked morose. "I'm sorry for your loss. I didn't know that."_

_Yui sighed. "I'm okay, sir. I can still cope with it, and besides I'm using the trust fund to keep on studying. Anyway, while still young I'm preparing for the inevitability of marriage, so apart from my studies I'm reading up on anything about married life. The last thing I need is to find myself unable to cope with such a life."_

"_I see."_

"_So trust me to handle them both; I think I can do it," Yui said reassuringly._

_They let a minute or two to pass, to let things sink in._

"_Well, since you wanted to learn more, why don't you submit your application for my subject?" the older man said._

_Yui nodded. "I'll give you anything you need first thing in the morning, sir. It's a deal."_

_Fuyutsuki grinned. "Okay. My classes start from eight, and I'll be waiting for you, Miss Ikari."_

"_Uh… Why don't you call me Yui instead?" she suggested. The use of the first name meant that she wanted to be on closer terms with Fuyutsuki._

_Fuyutsuki mulled over as to how he should address Yui, before he said, "That'll be acceptable from now on, Yui." They then stood up and he offered his hand for her to shake. She took it and shook; it was now a deal._

"_Welcome to Metabiology 204, Miss Yui Ikari," he said, grinning._

_Yui smiled. "Thank you, Professor."_

_

* * *

Again, like an abrupt change of scene in a movie, Rei was surprised to see Yui facing Gendo, now the first time she saw the Commander in his younger form. He was then clean-shaven, the glasses absent, and his coat was open. Both were hanging around at the hallway, with the man leaning against a coffee vending machine as he banged his palm against it, apparently trying to extricate a stuck can of UCC, until they could hear the clunking sound of the can hitting the bin._

_Rei could also overhear their conversation._

"_Thanks for helping," Yui said as she reached for the can of coffee. "I thought I couldn't get my coffee… But who are you?"_

_Gendo smiled. "I'm Gendo Rokobungi. I came here to finish my doctorate."_

_Yui held the can up and pulled the tab. "In what?"_

"_Molecular biology," Gendo answered. "I heard stories about you, especially how you put out a term paper about the metaphysical properties of biological structures... And you're in Professor Fuyutsuki's class, am I right?"_

_Yui nodded. "Well, yes, I am."_

_Gendo sighed. "A week ago he was assigned as my adviser, in a different schedule… Morning classes, that is."_

"_Since you're in graduate studies, what are you working on right now?"_

"_A thesis," Gendo said, as he fed the vending machine a paper bill, pressed the button for another can of coffee. As soon as the can hit the bottom bin, he picked it up and opened, before taking a sip. "It's about how to improve gene splicing techniques."_

_Yui glanced at her wristwatch, and then she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot."_

_Gendo looked surprised. "What?"_

"_I have a class to catch," Yui said. "Why don't we continue this later?"_

"_Sure," Gendo replied. "Do you have a number, so that I can call you and we could eat out? I know a good restaurant or two." He then whipped out a small notepad and a pencil from the pocket of his coat, which he handed over to Yui. She then scribbled the number and gave both items back to Gendo._

"_That's my number," Yui confirmed. "It's unlisted."_

_Gendo blinked. "Why?"_

"_I don't usually give out my number for privacy reasons. Don't want strangers calling me."_

"_I see… How can I call you? First name or surname?"_

_Yui smiled. "Use my first name. It's okay for me to be called Yui instead of my two surnames. Makes me feel better."_

_Gendo grinned. "Ah… Okay, I'll see you later… Yui."_

"_Thank you—"_

"_You can call me Gendo if you want to make it personal." He stared into her eyes for a few seconds, and then nodded before walking away. _

_Only after she saw that the man disappeared in a corner did she frowned and whispered, "Who are you?" Yui then leaned against the vending machine, before she smiled. "He looks all right," she whispered to herself, completely pleased._

* * *

Rei was amazed to see a side of the Commander that she had never known before, but it dawned upon the girl that it was almost the same attitude he displayed before her, with the same soft eyes. Besides, with his face almost peppered with stubble instead of the beard he had today, the Commander's appearance looked a bit like an older, taller… and a darker version of Shinji.

_

* * *

Fuyutsuki looked surprised. "Is that true?" he asked._

_This time it was after classes, and both of them were alone in the classroom at the moment. Outside the hallway, and behind closed doors, they could hear the muted din of students chattering._

_Yui nodded. "Yes, I'm going out with Rokubungi."_

_The older man was speechless for a moment, until he questioned, "Are you serious?"_

_Yui can only manage a laugh. "Oh, sir," she said. "Surprisingly, he's such a cute man, it's just that no one really knows it."_

_Fuyutsuki shook his head, as if he couldn't believe it. "Ignorance can be a source of happiness," he whispered. "There's a lot of rumors about him, some of it unsavory. So I'm very much concerned about you getting involved with him, even if I'm his advisor."_

_Noticing his reaction, Yui suddenly looked glum. "Why do you feel bothered about Rokobungi?"_

_Fuyutsuki sighed. "Miss Ikari, I do admit that he's a very interesting man, but still I don't like him."_

_Yui shook her head. "I don't understand, but I don't care what others say about me or Rokobungi, as long as he's happy."_

_Silence settled between the two, deep in thoughts until Fuyutsuki broke the silence. _

"_I understand now what you mean," he said, shrugging. "If that's what you want, then I will not begrudge you the chance to have your own happiness, but you'll have to be careful."_

_Yui nodded. "I'll take your word for it. Whatever happens ahead, I'll deal with it if I can."_

"_Okay," Fuyutsuki said._

_The woman then picked up her satchel and folder off the table and walked away. Before she left the door, Yui said, "I'll see you later, Professor… and thank you for understanding what I feel."_

_The classroom faded into black, to be replaced with yet another scene._

_It was a dark bedroom, with the dim light of sodium coming from the street lamp outside, where snowflakes could be seen swirling in the light breeze. Books, papers and notes were stacked on Yui's desk, but at the moment were ignored, at least for this quiet moment of togetherness. The only sounds inside was the faint hiss of the nearby gas heater that warmed the room, the radio on the bedside table playing _Sukiyaki_, and the wet smacks of kissing._

* * *

Blushing almost close to red, Rei was even more surprised; she had never seen anything like this from Commander Ikari, as she became the unseen witness to, of all things, an act of lovemaking in progress.

_

* * *

They were engaged in a torrid kiss, with Gendo caressing the curvature of Yui's body, trying to get his hand beneath her blouse, and then as he kissed the nape of her neck, his fingers found the buttons and began to pick them away, opening them one by one._

_He sighed, breathing in her scent, unzipping her slacks and tugged them downwards. Gendo then took off his shirt and went back to his ministrations, fingers attempting to locate the bra fasteners. He was then rewarded by a soft click, and the bra was let loose._

_Free of their clothing, they ambled to the bed and laid down, allowing their limbs to wrap around each other, as though they would deny anyone or anything to stop them from being engaged in a sensual moment of singularity, practicing a sacred dance that was still in vogue for millennia._

_Soon the bedroom was filled with their moans, the rare mixture of romantic pleasure and physical pain, as Gendo was ushered into Yui's temple, offering himself to be consumed by her passion until the final moment when his spirit was finally unleashed._

_Afterwards, the couple could now allow themselves for a bit of pillow talk, with their bodies completely wrapped in blankets._

"_I'm sorry," Gendo whispered, his arm wrapped around the woman's shoulder. "I got carried away."_

"_That's okay," Yui replied. _

"_But I'm going to be very honest with you."_

"_About what?"_

_Gendo sighed. "This is the first time I feel better with a woman… No, I've gone through many girls in my life before, but I… I think you're different, Yui."_

"_In what way?" Yui asked._

"_You are a challenge," Gendo admitted. "I mean, it has taken me three months to convince you, and now... We've gone this far enough. Why you're a challenge? It's just that you gave me a lot to think of, and then I also had to make concessions for you."_

"_I see," Yui said. "Now it's my turn to ask: why are you so interested in me?"_

"_Just as I said, you're different."_

"_Are you sure?"_

"_I swear, you're the only woman I actually loved."_

_Yui chuckled. "Cheesy classic, Gendo," she said, before the woman sighed. "I've met men before, and since high school they all came and gone. Why? It's just that some of them are either too self-centered, fueled with an excess of testosterone, or exaggerate their sensitivity."_

_Gendo nodded. "Ah."_

"_From my POV, you're different, Mister Rokobungi. I said a request to you, and then in no time you answered it like you're moving mountains. So you're the first man in my life who's willing to fulfill an oath. You swore off brawling, and I loved you for that; you cut down your alcoholic intake to only two bottles, and you look better; and…"_

"_And what?"_

"_I've heard a rumor from the dean's office."_

_Gendo blinked. "What does that old fart has to do with me?"_

"_You're in the running for a special citation, but since it's just a rumor, don't take it very seriously."_

"_I understand that. Fact is, I don't care if I win no award or whatever, as it's not my thing to collect trophies or pieces of paper with my name on it. I'd rather be very good at what I do, and I also want something more concrete, something that has real meaning."_

"_Like what?" Yui questioned._

"_Like loving you," Gendo answered, before he pushed himself to kiss Yui on the lips._

* * *

Why Rei fainted?

No, why she fainted upon seeing his mother's picture?

That was one question gnawing Shinji's mind as they waited anxiously outside the ER. He took a glance at Kaworu, who looked just as worried as he was. Normally Kaworu looked so confident as if he knew everything and sure of himself, but this moment was the exception to the rule.

Asuka, sitting besides him, sat with her arms crossed and she wore a sullen expression on her face. To her it was difficult to imagine what Rei was thinking of at the very moment that girl fainted. Perhaps the past must've hit the Wondergirl hard like an oncoming trailer truck at 90 kilometers per hour, perhaps there was more to Rei than she could ever believe, so what was exactly her connection with Shinji's mom, despite the fact that there was a gap of more than a decade between those women?

Kaworu, meanwhile, was lost in his own thoughts, trying to make sense of it all. Earlier, as they rushed Rei to the ER, for a moment he was able to touch her and obtained a snapshot of the girl's thoughts while she was in a state of unconsciousness.

Like flipping through a box of photographs, in his mind's eye he found himself staring at a set of very vivid afterimages, of a place that Rei had never seen before or set foot upon.

Of all places, what she was doing in Paris?

Then Kaworu determined that somehow a very obscure past life was unlocked within the girl's mind, even before Rei was conceived, and he knew that one word might be able to describe such a case.

_Reincarnation._

As the old man was an ardent Cabbalist, Keel once told Kaworu about transmigration and reincarnation, called _Gilgulei Ha Neshamot _(literally "cycle of souls"), and how they became part of their belief system, just as the Manicheans and the Gnostics believed in them, despite declarations of heresy by the mainstream orthodoxy. The concept of transmigration and reincarnation was dependent on the belief that the soul, upon the death of the mortal body, would seek a new body to inhabit and to be reborn (and not to be confused with resurrection and metamorphosis, which were different concepts).

Anyway, Kaworu mused, there are things in this plane of existence, such as reincarnation, that are beyond explanation that they served only to cause more questions to be asked than generate answers; not even science could prove or disprove certain forms of unusual phenomena.

Asuka sighed, the first to break the silence among them, and she said, "God, this is getting weird… No, things are becoming weirder, I think."

"What made you say that?" Shinji asked, but realized that ever since he came here months ago, his life was turned upside-down, with one strange occurrence after another, plus close calls with tragedy.

"We almost got ourselves hurt," Asuka said, "almost got killed, and then… Damn, trouble seems to be looking for us."

"That's not unusual in our profession," Kaworu responded.

The redhead shrugged. "Yeah, I know…. But there's something I wanted to ask you, and I forgot about it since yesterday."

Kaworu blinked. "What is it?"

"Tell me… How did you got into my dreams, before I woke up?" she questioned, referring to the early morning where, in her drugged state on the bed, she encountered Kaworu in her dream.

The question surprised Shinji. "What?"

"You mean yesterday?" Kaworu questioned.

Asuka nodded. "Well, yeah… I mean, let me put this straight: I saw myself in the tub, and you know what I mean, and then I heard your voice, telling me not to... Die."

Shinji frowned. "How come…?"

"Then the next thing I saw myself in some train station," the redhead went on, "and you appeared right before me."

"That's right," Kaworu confirmed.

Asuka stared right into Kaworu's eyes, as if telling him that it was time for some very candid questions. "So… Are you some sort of psychic? A mind-reader? A shrink? A magician? Or a Jedi Master?" she asked, the last 'professional' title being a joking reference to _Star Wars._

Inwardly, Kaworu felt like he'd been thrown a curve-ball of a question. He took his time to ponder, as the girl has finally put him in the spot, the hot seat.

The redhead laughed. "Come on, be honest with me," she cajoled.

Kaworu sighed, figuring that Asuka may have finally figured out what he did to her on that early morning, and so he must answer her queries. "Well… I admit I have this in-born property," he confessed. "My guardian said that I have some form of extrasensory perception, a sixth sense."

Asuka and Shinji looked surprised, eyes wide open. "Whoa, how did he saw that?" the girl questioned.

Kaworu decided that he'll have to dress and manipulate his answer, so as not to compromise his true identity. "One day," he began, "he thought I was able to read his mind, and so he put me through an ESP test, you know, the one where they show you some cards, and then you pick out one that matches the other after flipping them to show what's behind the other card."

Asuka nodded. "And you passed?"

"Yes," Kaworu answered.

The redhead grinned. "Oh, I see… What else can you do? You think you're Houdini? Copperfield?" she asked, referring to the legendary escape artist and the famed magician.

Kaworu shook his head. "No, I'm not like them," he disagreed. "Usually I prefer to keep this only to myself, but it's only now that this is the first time I have to tell you about this."

"But what you were doing in her dream?" Shinji asked, drawing back to the question that was said in the first place.

"Make her wake up," Kaworu answered. "Told her that life's worth living for."

Shinji blinked. "Wait a minute… You mean, you were right there at her bed?"

"I paid her a visit. I'm that very concerned."

Asuka frowned this time. "And what were you doing then in my room?"

"Nothing," Kaworu replied nonchalantly, as if to give her the impression that he wasn't ruffled by her blunt question. "I was then talking to you while watching you right there. You look very miserable, so that's why I paid you a visit, and that's why you saw me in your dreams."

"Oh," Asuka blurted. "I'm sorry. I thought you were doing something weird."

"In any case, should you wish for proof," Kaworu said, "I can ask the head nurse here to show you the visitation records for that time. But the bottom line is that I'm not the kind who would leave someone behind, and as much as I have advantages, short of being Superman, I'm not a show-off… and I become very concerned if I see any of you feeling unhappy."

Inwardly, Kaworu felt relieved that it was a close call. Otherwise things might have been very different if Asuka were to ask him if he was an Angel.

_

* * *

The scene changed to a kitchen, where Yui, wearing a long-sleeved sweater and a pair of slacks, was preparing a cup of tea for herself. On the dinner table, her laptop was open, and around it were several folders, presumably her work. The whole house was quiet, and as Rei walked around she guessed it must be Yui's home: one wall of the living room was occupied by a large bookshelf, consisting mostly of tomes concerning Yui's profession; opposite of that was the woman's stereo component, which at the moment was playing light music. _

_Rei watched the woman look up at the window, staring at the morning sky, and the girl wondered what she was thinking of. Must be the Commander, perhaps away and in some place she didn't know. The girl also noticed that the calendar, tacked above the microwave oven, had a date encircled with a red marker, and written above it was simply "Gendo"._

_The date was September 13, 2000, and the oven's digital clock told her that the time was 9:24 AM._

_The moment of Second Impact._

_Suddenly there were creaking sounds, followed by wall portraits unhinged from their hooks, crashing on the floor, and Yui turned back to see that the floor was moving violently. She gasped in surprise, and thanks to repeated exercises on earthquake awareness, Yui rushed out of the house and into the street, only to witness to see the sky turn to crimson as the power poles shook and overhead wires sway. She wasn't alone, as her neighbors were running out of their homes, shouting and screaming, crying for supplications to God, Buddha, Kanon, and demanding what was really going on, fearing the terrible repeat of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and in the distance, Yui saw part of the city skyline sway along with this unidentified tremor._

_Then the earthquake was over as quickly as it began. Silence settled for a minute or two, as the shocked survivors around Yui waited for what was to come, until this stilled tableau was broken once they began to talk, but in whispers, fearing for whatever could happen in the next few hours._

_Remembering Gendo, Yui took out a cellphone from her pocket and tried to dial for that man's phone, only to hear a prerecorded voice reminding the woman that all lines were busy and therefore she cannot use the service until further notice._

_Yui sighed, wondering where Gendo was at this very moment, and it shivered her to see that the sky's crimson color intensify. The woman then walked back inside, to discover her books and CD cases had crashed upon the floor and heaped on the coffee table; cupboards with their doors open and contents spilled and shattered all over the kitchen, and her teacup was completely upturned and emptied, tea splashed on the table and dripping onto the floor; in her bedroom, countless belongings were knocked off their perches on the shelves._

_Just as she left the bedroom, Yui heard the phone ring and she took it out of her pocket again. Looking at the number on the display, it was not on her phonebook, and curious, she pressed the 'call' button._

"_It's me," Gendo said at the other end of the line._

_Yui blinked. "Wha… Where are you? How are you doing? How did you manage to get your call through? There was an earthquake!" she exclaimed._

"_I'm okay and I'm on a plane, on my way home," Gendo answered. "Right now we're over… ah, Indonesia. I also borrowed this satellite phone from one of my associates, but I can't explain the details. Turn on the TV and tell me what's happening." _

_Yui walked over to the television set and turned it on. The screen was filled with breaking-news reports as she flipped channels, and the network news anchors all told her that, according to seismologists, an unusually powerful earthquake had originated from Antarctica, with an astonishing 10.2 on the Richter scale, and was now responsible for the shockwave that rocked the world. At the moment, the anchors said, officials were trying to get an assessment of casualties and the extent of damage. They also warned of possible aftershocks and a tsunami, which citizens must be prepared for._

_As the newscasters droned, Yui said into the phone, "There's been a large earthquake down at Antarctica."_

"_How big?" Gendo asked._

"_10.2," Yui answered, quoting the official Richter figure._

"_Pack your belongings. You must leave immediately!"_

_Yui blinked. "What?"_

"_Just get going and move to higher ground," he warned. "It's not safe for you to be where you're standing on right now. As for this plane, I'm afraid that we'll be up in the air for a little longer, so don't panic, everything will be fine."_

_Without warning the TV set flickered off, and the refrigerator motor wound down. The whole place was now under blackout, blanketed with deafening silence._

"_Okay," Yui said, the phone pinched between her ear and shoulder as she rushed to the bedroom, grabbed a travel case and opened it. "Auntie Sayako has a vacation house in Ofuse. It's not far from here, right up north and in the mountains." _

"_I know. She told me about it, but I forgot something: does that house have a phone?"_

"_Sorry, but no," she answered while grabbing as much clothing she can carry from the cabinet, and stuffing them all into the case._

"_Never mind, I'll try to reach you there as soon as the plane lands."_

_But Yui paused for a moment, to note that the beam of sunlight was not in its proper angle, as what she expected it to be; normally the sun should be almost riding low on the morning sky, but now, as she looked outside from the window, she was astonished to see that the sun was now almost high; and she also felt that the air was also unnaturally warmer, as if the usual coolness of autumn was totally obliterated by the earthquake._

"_Yui?" Gendo asked, wondering why she was silent. "Are you there?"_

"_My God," Yui muttered into the phone. By then she was sweating due to the increased heat and humidity, forcing her to take off and toss away the sweater, and the woman resumed packing._

"_Tell me, what's wrong?"_

"_The sun… It's in the wrong place."_

"_So?" Gendo sounded skeptical._

"_Look out from the window, and you'll see what I mean."_

_There was a minute or two of silence, as she could hear Gendo whisper excuses in English, probably trying to reach the nearby window._

"_Damn, you're right," Gendo finally said after a moment. "The Earth's axis is possibly out of its normal alignment."_

"_What?"_

"_I'll explain later about that as soon as we see each other; I don't have much time on this phone any longer. Just go and get away from trouble as far as possible, okay?"_

"_Okay," Yui answered. "I love you. Be safe."_

"_I love you too. See you later, and take care of yourself."_

_Now, as she put away the phone back into her pocket, Yui could hear the loud shrill of the emergency sirens, as though a grave disaster from the south was imminent, and would soon strike and devastate the entire country._

* * *

From time to time Ritsuko checked the girl's EEG output. Same situation, except for some spikes on the readings. Between those periodical checks on the girl's condition, Ritsuko went about reading, on Misato's laptop, more of Kaji's voluminous dossier full of his personal investigations.

"These aren't on the MAGI," she said while scrolling page after page of documents.

"Damn sure they're not," Misato answered. "He went just about anywhere getting as much dirt and 'black' info as he can, even into places you and I don't have an idea about."

"Only the Commander and the Professor knows for sure," Ritsuko said, referring to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who were both deep into the matter than any of them. "Do you want to pass them on to the Sub-Commander?"

Misato nodded. "Sure, why not? He's been waiting for an opportunity like this to happen. He also told me that before, he wanted to spill the beans, but the Commander thought otherwise and had the old man change his mind."

"Well, if this stuff goes public… The trouble is that not everyone's gonna be pleased,"  
Natsumi said. "It'll be like the Wikipee incident five years ago, you know, exposed classified cables and materials, only much bigger."

Wikipee was a website operated by activists and whistle-blowers, whose biggest revelation coup included the exposure of classified diplomatic cables that the US government thought to be secured from public eyes. The resulting aftermath caused diplomatic repercussions on a global scale, which included widespread criticism of US foreign policy; in response world governments and other individuals targeted the website, with repeated attempts to bring down the organization's web servers and arrest its operators.

"Which is why," Misato said, "I think it'll be better for the Sub-Commander to decide whether to keep this stuff locked away or not. But still, this could be our trump card… It might save us if we use it right." The woman then looked at Rei, still lying on the bed. "How much longer?" she asked.

Ritsuko glanced at her watch. It was more than thirty minutes since they brought Rei here. She shook her head. "I don't know for sure."

Misato frowned. "What?"

"I mean, I've never seen anything like this happening to her."

"Maybe there's an answer somewhere in those files," Misato suggested. "After all, even if we already know that she's practically a clone, there's a lot more about Rei that we don't know yet… So how deep is the rabbit's warren?" she asked, referring to a place in _Alice in Wonderland._

_

* * *

In a darkened chamber and in the middle of a floor chiseled with a Cabbalist diagram, Yui was now wearing a simple white linen robe, as she was surrounded by ten other members of SEELE, their heads shrouded by the hoods of their robes as they chanted in an unknown language. Standing right before her was Keel Lorenz, dressed in a black robe and wearing a ceremonial chest plate made of gold and brass, encrusted with glittering jewels. _

"_Before you shall be accepted as one of our own," Keel said sternly. "Kneel down to prepare yourself for consecration."_

"_Yes, High Master," Yui answered, using Keel's formal title within the circle, as she nodded in obedience and knelt down on the floor, for the initiation ceremony to begin._

"_Apprentice Saint-Clair," Keel began, "you shall not move except when your lips must respond to any question that I say, as I shall recite this sacred pledge for you to obey and remember from this day onward. Before we begin, you must be purified." _

_There was a moment of silence as Keel walked over to a brazier and picked up a swinging incense holder, wreathing them in smoke as though purifying her for this very moment. Once done, Keel returned the holder back to its place and waddled back to Yui, who remained motionless._

"_Apprentice Yui Ikari Saint-Clair, daughter of our late Brother Armand L'Eglise Saint-Clair," Keel recited, "Have you prepared your soul to accept what you would become?"_

"_Yes, High Master."_

"_Do you have the courage and the heart to take this sacred responsibility as a member of this council?"_

"_Yes, High Master."_

"_Are you willing to defend our sacred ideals, doctrine and our aspirations? Even to the point of death?"_

"_Yes, High Master."_

"_Do you have the wisdom to understand the complexities that our congregation faces and must resolve them?"_

"_Yes, High Master."_

"_Even if you are a woman, do you have the capacity to overcome even the limitations of your gender?"_

"_Yes, High Master."_

_The old man coughed to clear his throat, before continuing. "If you be made a member, you must promise that you must keep the secrets of our holy congregation a secret, that the uninitiated and the heretics do not deserve to know, that you maintain this secrecy until your last breath, lest that if you violate any of the laws that were created to ensure our survival and integrity, you will be at risk of being erased. Is that understood?"_

"_Yes, High Master. My life is forfeit in your hands."_

_Pleased, Keel took a breath and said, "Arise."_

_Dutifully, Yui stood up and closed her eyes, as two robed acolytes stepped forward from the darkness, with one holding a gold goblet and the other a wooden box gilded with gold leaf._

_The first acolyte walked towards Yui, proffered the goblet to the woman, who then carefully took it with both hands. She then stared at first at the liquid sloshing in the cup._

"_Should you be considered unworthy," Keel said, "might as well that the wine that you are about to drink could become a poison to kill you. Drink then, to prove your innocence."_

_As directed, Yui tipped the goblet and she consumed all of the wine until empty. She allowed the wine to settle within her body, waiting for the inevitable… but nothing happened. Satisfied, Yui gently gave the empty goblet to the acolyte standing by._

_The second acolyte with the box walked close to the woman, nodded to the first acolyte to open the box, who then pulled out a black robe; on the back of this robe was the SEELE emblem, embroidered in white and silver thread: seven eyes before an inverted triangle, split by a line in the middle from top to bottom, encircled by a striking serpent, and an apple enclosed the words _Uberm Sternenzelt richtet Gott, wie wir gerichtet.

_Without hesitation Yui disrobed, the white robe dropped to the marble floor, revealing herself to be naked beneath the garment, save for a linen loincloth, to show them that she had nothing to fear, and the acolyte with the box took it away while the other ambled forward to clothe the woman with the new robe._

_Once she finally wore the robe, as the acolyte straightened it out before the acolytes went back to their stations in the dark, only then Yui allowed herself to raise her head, scan the men surrounding her before facing Keel, staring at the old man's eyes hidden beneath a pair of shades. _

_It was time for confirmation._

"_Verily," Keel announced, "by the divine authority given to me as High Master, Archpriest of this august council, Magus and keeper of all arcane secrets and sacred knowledge, and the hand that guides mankind from this carnal world to enlightenment and into the fold, my Lord, bless our new member, Yui Ikari Saint-Clair, daughter of our late Brother Armand L'Eglise Saint-Clair, with your pure and sacred spirit, that her purpose and the knowledge she possesses shall serve the best interests of this congregation will be acknowledged by your divine authority. With this robe she wears, the robe represents her ascendancy into our ranks, the acceptance of her enlightenment, and to welcome her as a Sister and an equal."_

_Within herself, Yui felt a bit lighthearted and dazed with the realization that she was no longer an Apprentice._

_She was now one of the Elders, part of the high and sacred cabal of SEELE._

_Keel allowed himself a bit of a smile, before he declared, "Welcome, Sister Yui Ikari Saint-Clair… and congratulations."_

_Yui bowed in acknowledgement. "Thank you, High Master," she replied._

_Suddenly the great chamber exploded with the sound of clapping and loud chants of "Halleluia", as more torches on the walls were lit to announce Yui's ascension to the council._

* * *

With this scene being played out before Rei, it was the probably the crux as to why the Commander was single-minded in his purpose, why he mobilized gargantuan amounts of resources to get her back, and...

Why he made Rei almost into Yui's image, and chose the name for her.

On one hand he insisted that he loved her, but on the other… He desired access to power, to gain something bigger than himself. But that was made irrelevant, as a final two scenes appeared for Rei to witness, this time through the eyes of the woman who bore Shinji.

_

* * *

They were in a room of a private hospital in Odawara, the best within this part of the country. But being the best in a time after the Second Impact meant exorbitant prices and fees, which Gendo Ikari was able to afford with his princely monthly salary of about US$200,000, unthinkable for a man who was in charge of a small laboratory, yet considering the grave circumstances Japan was stuck in, the Ikaris were the lucky ones. _

_Lying on bed was Yui, who knew that anytime within 24 hours she would give birth. It was almost a year after Second Impact, the country struggling to recover from the cataclysm, with more than half of the Japanese population killed by the tsunami, followed by anarchy, and then the nuclear attack on Tokyo, which sparked the Second Korean War. In the aftermath, the United States was forced to assist Japan for the second time, occupying the country with troops to keep the peace, to provide humanitarian assistance, and to disallow foreign 'carpetbaggers' from exploiting the dispossessed citizens._

_Anyway, the couple was able to get into this rather opulent hospital and score a decent room and the best doctors possible, but elsewhere health services, including government-run hospitals and clinics, have become mediocre as there were too few doctors left alive to treat too many survivors, creating a medical crisis._

_Yui stroked her abdomen, as if to reassure the unborn within her womb that he or she'll be all right. She then thought of the idea of what sort of name they would give to the newborn._

_"Have you decided?" Yui asked, as Gendo was standing right by her side; the man was holding his can of coffee. _

_Gendo sighed, before he said, "Let's see… I'll name our child Shinji if it's a boy… Rei if it's a girl."_

_Yui nodded. "Shinji… Rei," she whispered, but her mind was playing with the names as she stared right up at the ceiling: Shinji... Rei… Shinji... Shinji... Ayanami... Shinji? Rei... Rei... Ikari... Rei? _

_No, it can't be, Yui thought, shaking her head as an idea finally caught up with the woman. If it's a girl... Ayanami Rei._

_

* * *

"Why's there a child here?" Fuyutsuki questioned. Out there, Unit-01 stood, restrained with braces, hoses and cables connected to the purplish man-made leviathan, despite being half-finished._

_"This is Chief Ikari's son," Naoko answered, and she looked uncomfortable with the boy's presence. The conversation caught Shinji's attention and he turned around to see them._

_Glancing at the main screen, piping in the video feed from the Entry Plug, Fuyutsuki took the microphone and spoke into it. "Ikari," he said, sounding worried. "This isn't kindergarten, and today is supposed to be a very important day."_

_His mother, sitting in a prototype of an Entry Plug, right in the very heart of Unit-01, looked back at Fuyutsuki and said, "Sorry, Doctor Fuyutsuki. It's my fault that I brought him here."_

_"But... Yui, it's your contact experiment today. We're not supposed to have him around, and this is a risky time to do so."_

_She shook his head, as if her decision was something little to worry about. "That's why. You said today's important, so I want to show the promising future to my son." Yui then took a deep breath, and her hands started to check the controls, pushing buttons, flipping switches. "Begin operation," she said. "Stage One is a go."_

_Immediately the control room exploded into activity, with technicians announcing whatever they read off the displays:_

"_Initial plug depth is set at 0.105. Internal pressure at one atmosphere."  
"Monitors and recorders are up and running. Confirm sensor self-check… Done."  
"Scanning bioelectrical activity… No anomalies."  
"Begin electrolyte injection… Now."_

_Orange liquid began to flood the plug, engulfing Yui until it was full. While breathing in the oxygen-rich liquid, the preparations were still ongoing, and she could still hear the voices from control room._

"_Main power supply is now connected."  
"Oxygen and nitrogen mixture is at optimum levels. Exchangers are at full capacity."  
"Cross-checking synapses. Detecting bioelectrical activity… 2.566 volts."  
"Roger that. Core temperature is stable, holding at 38 degrees."  
"Restraint bolts fully secured and interlocked."_

_For a moment Yui sighed, thinking of the explorers before her who went out into the unknown before: the people who reached the poles, the summit of Mount Everest, the depths of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, and finally, the surface of the Moon._

_Now she felt she was like those explorers, about to embark on a journey to an uncharted region of science, beyond the frontier of existence._

_But this wasn't for her ego; this was for survival, an insurance policy for Shinji's benefit; she knew that someday he'll be here, and would try to watch him over, high water or hell._

"_Initiate Stage Two," Yui commanded._

"_Roger that, Doctor. Now lowering plug to 0.120."  
"We got activity across the board."  
"Pattern Green, Doctor. Is that okay?"_

"_That's not a problem," Yui answered. "All my gauges are in the zone here, so keep going."_

"_Psychograph shows no sign of instability."  
"Plug depth adjusted to 0.128."_

_Yui closed her eyes for a moment, thinking whether to go further with her own last-minute parameters or just be content with the system settings that were officially specified prior to the experiment. She then thought of the final threat Keel had issued to her last week after a very heated argument: they wouldn't hesitate to kill her to protect their interests, especially issues surrounding the implementation of the Human Instrumentality Project; now they marked Yui an anathema, a traitor and a heretic to the rest of the old men who held absolute power in their hands._

_It so reminded of the situation faced by her ancient and yet obscure ancestor, when it came to dealing with a sexist adversary who thought that women have no place in religion and society, that women are inferior and should be kept in the background. Yui also remembered a passage that she once read, from a copy of an ancient text that the paternal side of her family had kept secret for centuries: "Peter makes me hesitate: I am afraid of him, because he hates the female race." _

_When the time came to discuss as to how it should be done, Keel aggressively insisted on using their form of Instrumentality, as instructed in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls, in which all life would be reset completely, so that there would be a pure world without sin; Yui disagreed, arguing that Instrumentality need not to be implemented by means of annihilation, but instead use Eva as the means to tell the rest of the universe that humanity has triumphed in the face of many adversities and still had a hopeful chance at redemption._

_Yet unanimously the rest of the council decided that Keel's course of action was far better and more absolute; they intended not to live long in a world they thought to be dirty and hopeless… and as she stood in the way, a thorn in their sides, they wanted her dead. _

_Finally she remembered the conversation she had with Fuyutsuki a year ago, about her own intent, her worries about personal safety and hopes for the future._

_There was no turning back this time. This experiment was her own idea, to prove that Eva lives as a biological entity, and at the same time, deny her enemies the opportunity to 'erase' her completely and use the Evas for their own nefarious purposes. _

_She will integrate herself with this Eva and her core, even if it meant that her corporeal form will also have to be sacrificed in exchange, and from there she would wait for Shinji… and by the time that her child becomes almost a man, everything would come in full circle._

_With nothing more for her to fear, now it was time for the next step._

"_Initiate connection to the A10 nerve," Yui ordered._

"_Roger that, Doctor. Negotiating connection to A10, target voltage and current is matched, and… 10… 9… 8… 7…"_

"_Professor," Yui called out, singling out Fuyutsuki, who was watching back at her and Unit-01 as the countdown was spoken._

"_Yes?" the older man replied._

_Yui sighed. "Tell Gendo that he should take care of Shinji for my sake," she said, as the woman stared into Shinji's eyes. Watching behind the thick glass windows, the young boy looked fragile, unaware of what was to come._

_Fuyutsuki blinked. "What do you mean? Why?" he questioned._

_The technician called down the last few seconds: "… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Engaging A10!"_

_At this very moment, however, klaxons blared out; it meant serious trouble._

"_It's because I want him to know that—" she said, but was cut off short, for there was an unexpected bright flash of light… then nothingness._

* * *

Like a fish quickly pulled out of the water, Rei suddenly bolted upwards on the bed, eyes wide open and she yelled out a monosyllable. The unexpected action startled the women around her bed, as Ritsuko and Natsumi dropped whatever they were holding, clipboards and pens clattering on the floor.

"Rei?" Misato asked loudly as she got up to her feet, rushed to bedside and hugged the girl. "Tell me, what's wrong with you?"

"Please," Rei replied. "I…"

Misato disengaged, letting the girl center herself. "Okay, tell me, but relax yourself."

Rei took stock of her surroundings, and she wondered why she had these wires taped to her head. "What are… Why I have these?" she asked about the wires.

"Because you were in a trance," Ritsuko answered. "You were really dreaming."

"Dreaming?"

All three women around the girl nodded. "That's why we put those electrodes on your head, to see what's on the EEG," Ritsuko explained. "So… tell me what sort of dream you've experienced."

"I…" Rei trailed away, trying to pick the right words to describe what she witnessed. "I saw the past life of someone."

"Of whom?" Misato questioned.

"The mother of Ikari. How she lived, and how she became one with Eva."

Astonished, the older women looked at each other in askance, before Misato asked, "Can you explain… uh, describe it?"

Rei nodded, but just as she was about to start, the ER doors swung open, and the three Children who were waiting for almost an hour rushed in. Without hesitating, Shinji quickly hugged Rei and he whispered loudly, "Ayanami, what happened to you? I thought you—"

"Why are you guys doing here?" Misato demanded, as Shinji let go of the First Children. "You were supposed to stay outside, remember?"

"Sorry, but we thought we heard her scream," Asuka said, "which is why we charged in to see what's really going on." The redhead then pulled Shinji for them to sit on one of the spare beds parallel to Rei's bed.

Kaworu nodded, before turning his attention to Rei. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I feel strange," Rei said as the Fifth Children hugged her, rubbing the girl's back as if to reassure her everything was okay.

"You're still fine now," Kaworu said as he let go, but then noticed the electrodes taped to Rei's head. "What's all that over her head?"

"We were trying to check her EEG pulses, trying to figure out what caused her to black out," Ritsuko said.

"I see," Kaworu said as he pulled a stool towards him and he sat on it. "Can I take them off?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Sure," the doctor said. "It's over… for now."

Gently, one-by-one, Kaworu peeled away the tape holding the electrodes off the girl's head, and then he rubbed her left temple. "Is there some water?" he requested. "I think she's also thirsty."

"Okay," Natsumi said as she went over to a water dispenser, filled a cup and handed it over to Kaworu, who then thanked her.

The young man then gave the girl the cup and she drank. Afterwards Kaworu took away the cup, leaned close to the girl and he whispered, "Rei, tell me what visions you have seen."

Everyone else in the room was now keenly watching, ready to listen to every word.

Rei nodded, then took a deep breath and began to narrate everything she experienced in her 50-minute trance.

* * *

Somewhere in Kazakhstan, a convoy consisting of four SUVs was rolling on a dirt road, heading towards a nondescript complex of buildings. The complex was once used to be a part of a Soviet army military installation, supposedly containing facilities to support tank battalions, including a vast training field pocked with wreckage, barracks, an airfield for which to transport tanks with cargo planes, and tank maintenance garages; the last location was this convoy's destination.

In the lead SUV, the man sitting in the passenger side watched as they were approaching the gatehouse. He was military all the way, including the haircut and bearing, but never his attire: leather jacket and jeans. Upon halting right up there, with the guard leaning down to question the visitors; the guard was packing an AN-104 assault rifle with a collapsible stock, along with four magazines on the belt.

"You have papers?" the guard asked in Russian. After all this was routine.

The man lifted a sheaf of printed documents and handed them over to the guard, who then skimmed through until he was satisfied. "That's all?" he replied, except that something wasn't right about the accent.

"No problem," the guard approved, inwardly suspicious, but just as he was about to wave them through, he was surprised to see that the visitor whipped out something else from the folds of his jacket; it was too late for the guard to reach for his rifle.

A silenced Steckhin pistol.

_POOF!_

The guard was now dead, collapsed into a heap with a bloody hole in the forehead. At the same time the convoy rolled in and parked their vehicles right in front of the tank garage, before they stepped out, pop open the tailgate and reached for the arsenal hidden in tarps, consisting entirely of Biz-2 silenced submachine guns.

With no word between them, their leader nodded to his subordinates, and led them inside the garage, where there was a flight of stairs leading down. It took them half a minute to reach the very bottom (for the elevator was temporarily out of order), before the team walked down a hallway lit with incandescent bulbs, and the team leader kicked the doors that stood in the way.

Right before them, scientists and technicians gasped in surprise, halted in mid-work, wondering what business these armed men have in this facility. Behind the personnel was a vast Plexiglas tank that was full of LCL... yet devoid of whatever it contained; the rest of the place had workstation cubicles, work tables, and specimen jars full of dead samples floating in preservative.

Out of this crowd, Doctor Steingarten rushed to meet the leader. "What brings you here?" he demanded, but there was a small trace of fear in the old man's voice. "Who are you?"

The leader sighed and briefly scratched his head. "Doctor," he said. "My name is Major Willard Cobb, and may I inform you that the Chairman no longer needs your services, now that the Nagisa Dummy Plug is finished and working perfectly." He then snapped his fingers to the rest of his team, who then raised their weapons and began to mow down anyone standing on two feet.

Steingarten cowered, not wanting to see this horror unfolding before him as his subordinates screamed and died in that hellstorm of bullets, until there was only the tinkle of empty cartridges on the floor and the last gasps of breath from the dying.

The old man now stood up, but to plead. "Why? What have you done?"

"We're just following orders from the top… But you," Cobb emphasized as he pulled out the silenced pistol again. "Before we burn this place up, you're expendable, old man. Sorry."

That was the last words Steingarten heard before Cobb's hollowpoint bullet struck the elderly man's head.

**

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:** For more than a month since the last chapter, it's been a struggle for me trying to be productive by writing every late night after all the housework. But, really, to produce this chapter it took a great deal of research and thinking, trying to get as far as I could to see things through Yui Ikari's eyes, like attempting to explore an uncharted region or figuring out the conundrum of that character's puzzle. It's so hard!

There are some literary influences found within this chapter, as well as incorporating my recent forays into the concept of reincarnation, or more precisely, transmigration, hence the chapter title. Although there are some references to _Twilight,_ may I remind the fact that this story is an Evafic, and as such I remain loyal to the Eva saga and its memorable characters.

C&Cs are still welcome, and until then, looks like I'm gonna have to return to the jungle, hack my way through, and see how far I could go. Thank you and good evening.


	33. Afterwards

**SEELE Covert Forward Operations Base  
Siberia, Russia**

In his private quarters, sitting on an armchair before a lit fireplace, Keel Lorenz was sipping on a cup of tea, when he heard the knocking on the door.

"Come inside," Keel intoned, and the door opened, and an old man walked in. This visitor's hair and very lengthy beard were all white; he was dressed in a three-piece suit; his face was weathered with deep creases and dark spots, but his grey eyes remained alert and intelligent, and despite his advanced age his 6-foot body retained the muscular build that once earned him the sobriquets "The Bear" and "The Crocodile" (for effortlessly snapping the necks of his captives with the strength of a crocodile's hard bite). The ring finger on his left hand had one made of solid gold and inscribed with the emblem of the KGB, the once-feared security apparatus of the Soviet Union.

Keel looked up and smiled. "What brings you here, Brother Evgenyi?"

Evgenyi Yusupovich Starayakov, otherwise known as SEELE 04, walked over to a tea service cart, and picked up a china cup. "Just to unwind, my old friend," he answered. The otherwise elderly man was formerly the second-in-command of the KGB in the Gorbachev era, and currently the honorary president of Russia's largest oil company.

"Ah," Keel grunted. "It's been years since I first came across your father, and I'm very grateful for his kindness."

Evgenyi grinned as he prepared a cup of Earl Grey. He'd heard the same story from his old friend from time to time, and remembered it so well: Keel was made a prisoner of war after the Russians conquered Berlin and captured scores of defeated Hitler Youth conscripts, and the victors figured that they had absolute god-like power to decide the fates of their captives: either to send them to Siberia, knead them to compliance into communists, or kill them. But somehow Evgenyi's father recognized Keel, heard from him that he had a back problem, and using his authority as a senior NKVD official, the elder Starayakov freed the young man and let him walk over to the American lines as a hungry refugee wearing ragged civilian clothes. The reason for this gesture of kindness was that Evgenyi's old man was a friend of Keel's father, and both of them happen to have studied together in the University of Berlin, prior to Hitler's rise to power.

Since his freedom Keel had prospered, created and operated a veritable business empire out of a long-suffering pharmaceutical company, and at the same time secretly led and rebuilt SEELE into what it was today: an invisible fraternity of absolute power answerable only to itself.

Of course Keel generously repaid the elder Starayakov, with the German's covert contributions to the Soviet's chemical and biological warfare programs during the Cold War. Had not for Keel's support, along with Western intelligence leakages the German had passed on to the intelligence agency through cutouts and triple agents, Evgenyi might have not survived the vicious climb right up to the top of the KGB hierarchy, which was why the old Russian was now in good health and spirits, lived long enough beyond his cut-throat life in the intelligence agency, and looked forward to Instrumentality.

"Always," Evgenyi said as he picked up a bottle of premium Stolichnaya, uncorked it and poured a shotful of the popular vodka into his steaming cup. To keep himself warm, he reasoned. He then noted that on the small table besides Keel's chair there was a telephone. "Whose call are you waiting for?"

"I've sent Herr Cobb to put Steingarten to sleep and destroy the facility," Keel answered, referring to the liquidation mission in Kazakhstan. "Loose ends that we must deal with."

"Oh," Evgenyi blurted. "The man who made our Dummy Plugs, right?"

"He and his men were expendable, so it was for the sake of security, to make sure we keep Ikari in the dark."

Evgenyi raised his cup in approval. "Excellent, as always," he answered before taking a sip. "Leaving no stone unturned… But, what about Sanderson and Nagisa?"

"They'll report in soon enough," Keel answered. "It's only with that Angel that I am much concerned about."

"Why?" the old Russian asked before smacking his lips; he got the tea mixture all right.

"The one thing about that young man is his insatiable curiosity, and that indeed sets him apart from his other brethren. Once he sees something new, he would relentlessly study it, ask questions, or try it for himself, which is why he's very good at most things and he learns so quickly."

"But then…?"

"The problem is the amount of loyalty he has right now. He must draw a fine line between us and NERV, but if he doesn't sees things in our way and he doesn't do what he is supposed to follow, and as I have said before, his life will be forfeit."

The phone suddenly rang, interrupting both men, and Keel picked it up.

"Yes?" the old German answered.

"It's Cobb, Chairman," the American from the other end of the line said, talking in a Southern accent. "Targets eliminated, and right now we're returning."

Keel smiled. "Excellent," he praised. "However, as soon as you and your men arrive, Quaritch has another job for you."

"Thank you, Chairman. That'll be mighty fine," Cobb replied.

"Good," Keel concluded before putting down the phone.

"So, is it done?" Evgenyi asked.

Keel nodded. "Yes, and then we'll wait for the finishing touches."

"The day after tomorrow," the Russian agreed, before making another sip of his spiked tea.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 33:AFTERWARDS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 2/14/2011 2:52 a2/p2

* * *

When it was over, they couldn't just believe what Rei said, and her audience can only blink twice, as if to make sure they heard correctly.

"That's all?" Shinji questioned.

"Yes," Rei answered.

"How… How did you manage to remember everything about Mom?"

"I do not understand, but perhaps because of the compatibility test," she said, referring to the earlier failed compatibility test, in which Unit-01 rejected Rei completely, yet at the same time restored the memory of her past back into her brain.

"All right," Ritsuko said. "Let's get it clear as to how she managed to have all of it in her head."

"How?" Shinji and Asuka asked in unison.

"I'm all ears," Kaworu said.

"It hinges on the fact that Unit One is responsible for returning most of Rei's past memory while it went out of control, and—"

"Eva has her own mind and soul," Rei interjected.

"That's right," Ritsuko acknowledged, "and with that fact in mind, it's possible that Evas can also store memories, drawing them from whoever occupies the Entry Plugs. Now, in this case, Shinji, your mother was absorbed into Unit-01 at 400% synchronization, causing her soul to be merged with the core, and therefore that Eva also acquired her memory. Fast forward to a decade later, with Rei asked to synchronize with Unit-01, but then things turned ugly and caused that Eva to force all of what she knew into Rei."

"Which is why I can remember not just my past," Rei said, staring at Shinji with her cerise eyes, "but that of your mother."

Shinji nodded as he blinked twice. "I see… That made sense. But I want to ask something else, Ayanami."

"What is it?" Rei questioned.

The young man sighed. "Did Mom really loved Father?"

Rei mulled over the question for a minute, and then she replied, "I do not know if it is genuine, or it was out of necessity… But the Commander was truly in love and at the same time, through her association with the Elders, it allowed him immense influence over the Committee."

Shinji frowned. "No wonder he's crazy about this Instrumentality thing," he bitterly remarked, shaking his head. "No wonder why he misuses anyone close to him."

"All for the sake of your mother?" Kaworu asked.

"Yeah," Shinji answered. "But… He's doing it all so wrong. Now, I don't quite understand why Mom decided to get along with those crazy old men… Those trying to play God."

"She did it for your own sake," Rei said.

Shinji scratched his head. "Me?"

Rei nodded. "That is right. She joined out of the reason that she wanted to set things right. She did not wish Eva to be made as a tool for theirs to exploit, but she paid the price and they marked her for death. Therefore it became her decision to be one with Eva."

"Really?"

"Yes," Rei confirmed.

Shinji shook his head. "Now that explains why sometimes I feel she's with me right in there. But what's the point of her doing all this for me? Why the need to sacrifice herself?"

Except for Rei, everyone else around him felt uncomfortable, as if they couldn't give a definite answer.

And she spoke: "Even if everything else has long gone, long after eons, Eva will exist as long as that one person lives on… and she shall exist as proof of humanity's existence."

"You mean…" Shinji trailed off.

Misato blinked, for she heard that already from Fuyutsuki. "That's what the Sub-Commander told me last night," she said.

"How?" the young man asked.

"As he once used to work with her," Misato said, "he explained what your mom intended to do, and just as Rei said, she merged with Eva to fulfill her plan."

"Oh, reminds me of the archived stuff that were loaded onto the Voyager probes," Ritsuko said. "They did just that so that when some intelligent life comes across them, those probes will remind them that we exist in the universe."

"But that is what the Committee did not want," Rei said. "They preferred to carry out their own plan of remaking existence to their own wishes, to obtain the immortality of gods."

Misato nodded. "Which is why we are making plans to prepare for that eventuality should we refuse to do as they say."

"Yeah," Shinji said.

For a while, silence settled among them, letting all the facts sink in as they pondered. The consequence was that with Rei having full knowledge of both about her personal life and that of Shinji's mother, the more she would speak of them, the more she would shed light to murky mysteries that were responsible for what was happening in the present. Perhaps with this knowledge, they might as well be able to stop the final catastrophe from happening.

But for now, as long as Commander Ikari has full control of the organization, until a favorable opportunity presents itself, they cannot make any drastic moves and instead must move things in the background and in secret.

In Misato's mind, she was sure that Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki was pulling strings by convincing the other key NERV officials the truth of Ikari's machinations and what would happen if they do not intervene. Perhaps by now he should have succeeded with his own brand of diplomacy, as she knew that most people working here secretly disliked the Commander's rather cold and autocratic leadership style, and wanting changes to happen; in the grapevine personnel felt better working under Fuyutsuki's watch, as he did not terrorize his subordinates for even the smallest infractions.

Going back, Misato guessed that if Rei told Shinji more of about his mother and her life's work, she hoped that the truth would make him a better person than he was before.

"All right," Misato said, breaking the impasse as she glanced at the wall clock, which told them it was 5:16 in the afternoon, "Why don't you Children take a break from all of this dreary stuff for a while, let us grown-ups to deal with it, and then focus on tonight's get-together at the O-Club? All four of you still need to get your spirits up."

Well, it was obvious to the three women that the Children had taken things too seriously.

Asuka nodded. "Why not?" she said, suddenly feeling perky.

"Besides," Ritsuko said amusedly, looking at Rei, "I'd like to see how it would look like if you let your hair down."

Rei blinked. "What is 'hair down'?"

Asuka laughed and then she replied, "Oh, my… It means you can behave like as if you're more relaxed than the usual."

Bemused, Shinji shook his head.

The First Children nodded. "I see, it is an idiom," she said, but noticed Shinji's body language. "Ikari… _my brother_, I am sorry if I do not understand… idioms."

Shinji caught on Rei's use of the words _my brother,_ causing him to blink. "Wait a minute," he said. "What did you say?"

"Idioms," Rei answered.

Shinji shook his head. "No, Ayanami, I mean… you said 'my brother'. I never heard you say that before."

Instead, Rei simply blushed and smiled, and Kaworu said, "Well, I think she'll be sticking to it from now on."

Anyhow, the idea of Rei calling him _my brother_ made his heart so tender that he walked up to the First Children and hugged her. That surprised her much as Shinji whispered, "Thanks… I never had a _sister _like you."

"It is all right," Rei replied as Shinji, now her brother by consanguinity and genetics, slowly let go of her. "You were also correct in saying that I act like a mother," she added.

"I forgot, but what did I said?"

"Do you not remember, when you said that I was like a mother in the way that I wiped the floor?" she recalled, her thoughts reaching back to that afternoon, when Shinji saw her on all fours, cleaning the floor with a wet rag.

Shinji blinked. "Oh… Yeah, that's right. Now I can remember that," he said, before breaking into a chuckle.

"However, the other wish of Mother was to look after you," Rei answered. "In the same way I tried to protect you."

Shinji blinked. "Oh, that's why she moved her arm on the first day I came, right?"

Rei nodded. "I remember that moment. You saw me hurt and tried to comfort me."

"Yet now I understand why he had you carted right at the cages: to force me to pilot." Shinji then sighed, knowing all too well that his father went to great lengths to misuse people for his own ends.

"Unfortunately, that was correct," Rei confirmed. "He wanted you to pilot Unit One."

"That's right… But, can I say something else?" Shinji suggested.

"You may," Rei said.

Shinji turned his attention to his other companions and he began, "I had a strange feeling when… How can I say it? I… You see, what I feel for Ayanami, it doesn't go with words...like 'like' and 'want to go out with.'" He then repeatedly patted his hand over heart. "It's as if she's a part of me that was torn away a long time ago."

"But now…" Kaworu interjected.

"I feel complete," Shinji said, and he smiled as if things have finally gone full circle and made sense after a very long time of being befuddled with puzzles.

Kaworu shrugged, feeling thankful. "All's well ends well," he declared.

* * *

At the Secure Weapons Storage Facility, six levels below the ground, Tsutomo Kanzaki hefted an assault rifle from one of the olive-drab steel cases, having wiped it free of Cosmoline, a protective paste that kept weapons from corrosion while in storage. The weapon, with only a metal placeholder in the magazine well for the sake of safety, was a 5.56mm Heckler and Koch G-36C, designed for special operations. For that role, the designers added Picatinny rails on top of the weapon and on the handguard sides and bottom, to allow any scopes and accessories to be attached quickly; the shorter barrel length made it good for close-quarter battle, especially in tight places such as NERV HQ; even more importantly, this family of assault rifles can be quickly customized to any configuration with just a few tools.

"They're in the second part of the inventory list," Agent Shinichi Morisato said as he pored over the list on his clipboard, while other Section Two men inspected the weapons piece by piece, checking their physical condition for any flaws; they had six container vans' worth of killing power to comb through, and they want to make sure they work straight out of the box.

"I see," Tsutomo agreed, staring at the sleek lines of the rifle. "But this is awesome, and it'll come in handy, considering how high we are," he remarked happily.

Since the average Japanese were low in stature (generally five feet and six inches), assault weapons (since the introduction of the specially-designed 7.62mm Type-64 for the Self-Defense Force) had to be short and light for easy handling, hence the need for rifles with 12-inch barrels, polymers and light alloy materials, and smaller grip diameters. In this case, Tsutomo figured that the G-36C and its extensive use of polymer materials in its light construction would befit Misato, as she stood at least 5'4" and might not have enough upper-body and arm strength to carry heavier rifles, such as the stock Colt M4A1, which was mostly made out of steel.

Tsutomo swung the German rifle up, as if to aim, testing the feel of its weight as his right eye bore through the steel sights. He then laid the weapon back into its box, nodded in satisfaction and said, "Reserve one of these for Colonel Katsuragi. I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

Shinichi nodded as he scribbled a note on the clipboard. "Sure, and she'll really need a superb tack driver. What about yours? Have you picked what you like?"

Tsutomo walked over to another opened crate and fished out a customized M4 with a specialty 12-inch tactical handguard with rails, a polymer adjustable butt, and it looked real solid. Peering closer and twirling it around, this particular rifle had a lot of aftermarket goodies screwed in and bolted, and stamped on the magazine well, in lieu of Colt's famous rearing stallion, was the name _LaRue Tactical _with the distinctive state of Texas outline.

"Shit, this looks and feels very good," Tsutomo remarked favorably as he swung the rifle to an aiming position. "Where this came from?"

Shinichi flipped through his inventory list and found the entry for the rifle. "Well," he said, "going by the serial number, that baby once belonged to the Delta Force, and as expected, those commandoes will soup up any weaponry they have for maximum performance. With that rifle you're holding, it's been built more of as a precision weapon because the barrel's machined for greater accuracy and range."

Tsutomo nodded as he snapped the safety to burst and pulled the rifle's trigger, in double-tap fashion, at an imaginary target. "Like, no fuss, no muss."

"Right," Shinichi agreed. "Now, do you want that?"

The agent grinned, as if he was like a kid opening a gift on Christmas Day. "Of course. Reserve this for me."

* * *

While Ritsuko and Natsumi were busy helping Rei get back onto her feet, writing down their favorable findings as they gave her a final checkup, and all the while the other three Children were watching, Misato went over to a nearby phone on the counter, and dialed for Fuyutsuki's office.

"Yes, this is Fuyutsuki," the old man said at the other end. "Who is this?"

"It's me, sir," Misato replied.

"Oh," Fuyutsuki blurted, recognizing the woman's voice. "I'm working on administrative things, trying to cut out some of the red tape. What news do you have?"

"We found what we might need, but I can't tell you about over the phone, so it would be necessary if you could come here and see."

There was a momentary pause, as if Fuyutsuki was pondering on what she really meant. "Okay, Colonel, I've got what you mean," he finally decided, realizing that whatever she would present to him was too sensitive to talk over the phone. "I'll come, but where?"

"Here at my quarters in the BOQ. Have to keep this under guard."

"Okay, as soon as I get finished. Thank you," the elderly Sub-Commander said before hanging up.

"Well?" Natsumi asked.

Misato put the phone down back into its cradle. "I just asked the Sub-Commander to come and see for himself what we have discovered," she replied.

"Ah." The younger doctor then went over to the EEG machine and rolled up the electrodes to be set aside.

"Oh, I forgot to ask."

Natsumi blinked. "What?"

"Why don't you and Tomo come down at the O-Club tonight? You two wanted to go on a date, right?"

This time the young doctor blinked. "Oh… Yeah, I forgot," she answered and then cracked a smile. "Looks like I'll have to text him. Better to have something substantial than nothing at all."

"Good," Misato approved as she watched Natsumi pull out her mobile phone and began making a text message, before she turned her attention to Rei. "Guess from now on we'll have to be very careful with what we say," she remarked to the girl.

"This will be a secret among us," Rei answered. "He must not know of this truth."

"Father wouldn't be happy if he knows," Shinji said.

Rei nodded as she pushed herself off the bed and straightened out her school uniform. "That is right."

He then turned to Asuka and said, "As soon as we get back to our room, why don't you tell me about your mom? Why don't we talk about her?"

Asuka sighed. "Okay," she agreed in a rather glum tone. "And with Kaji's files, I wanted to know what really happened to her." The girl then pointed at the box sitting on the counter.

"Oh, by the way," Misato called out to Kaworu, who had spoke little and right now waiting for Rei. "Do you have anything else to do?"

Kaworu shook his head. "No, nothing much."

"While I have to get Kaji's stuff checked out and organized for Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki to see, you and Rei can order us some dinner down at the Cafeteria, we'll eat at our quarters and then we get some rest for tonight," Misato suggested.

"No problem," Kaworu said, nodding as he watched Misato pick up a pad and a pen, and wrote down their order before tearing off the sheet, fished out a couple of 1000-yen bills from her purse, and handed both to the Fifth Children.

"It's been a long day for all of us… and what about you two?" Misato then asked Ritsuko and Natsumi.

"I have to get back to my analysis work," Ritsuko said. "Tons of it, but I'll try to come later."

"Need to finish my rounds first," Natsumi added. "You know, I have to check on my patients, who crashed and burned and got shot at yesterday." She was referring to the security troopers who were injured in yesterday's ambush on the convoy.

Misato nodded. "I see," she said, before gesturing at the Children that they have to leave now. "C'mon guys, let's go now," she ordered.

* * *

Halfway through his inspection, Tsutomo felt his phone vibrate and he snatched it from his pocket and checked the message. It said: _You busy?_ _Are you coming with me tonight? I'm ready as soon as I get finished. – Natsumi._

Tsutomo smiled as he replied: _Sure, no problem. Better than to have nothing to do or complain._

He went back to eyeballing one of the heftier FN M-240 heavy machine guns, from the box and free of Cosmoline, testing it for functionality, making sure that its firing mechanism was in working condition when his phone vibrated again.

_I see,_ Natsumi said. _OBTW, one of the Children found dossiers that belonged to Kaji. The Sub-Commander is coming to see them._

That really surprised him, and he responded, pressing the keypad frantically: _Wow. I hope it could help us track down the mole we're hunting for. Where are those files right now?_

Immediately Natsumi texted back: _They're with Misato. Doesn't want them to fall into the Commander's hands. Again it's our secret._

_Okay,_ Tsutomo said. _I'll see them later, thanks. See you at the O-Club._

* * *

Back in their quarters, while Misato was busy browsing through the rest of Kaji's SD card on her laptop, and while Kaworu and Rei went down to the Cafeteria to order some boxed dinner for all of them, Shinji pulled out a piece of paper from the metal box.

"So, this is her, all right?" Shinji asked Asuka as he held a Xerox copy of the late Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu's personal information, all typed out in English, a language that was hard for him to master:

_**KYOKO ZEPPELIN SORYU (1974-2005)**__  
Position: Chief Scientist, Project E Research and Development Division, NERV Germany  
Date of Birth: July 24, 1974  
Place of Birth: Heidelberg, Germany  
Parents: Ernst Zeppelin (father, deceased) / Miyoko Soryu (mother)  
Spouse: Edward James Langley (husband/widower)  
Children: (1) Asuka (daughter)  
Educational Attainment: University of Stuttgart - Doctorate in Molecular Biology (1996)_

Asuka nodded after scanning the document. "Yep, that's her," she confirmed, rummaging through the scraps in the box, looking for anything connected to her mother. "Misato, you got something on Mom?"

"Uh, wait a second," Misato answered. "I think there's a file or two in here," she said, pointing at a pair of ZIP files, both carrying the suffix SORYU in the filenames.

"Open them up," Asuka ordered and Misato unzipped the files into a directory. Inside, there were several PDF files and the older woman opened the first, which turned out to be a full confidential report on the testing accident; the second ZIP file consisted of several medical records that chronicled the deteriorating psychological condition of Doctor Soryu, three files from the police, an autopsy report from the coroner, and a bunch of legal documents connected to the deceased woman.

"Let's see the full report first," Misato decided, and began to read the document, translating it to Japanese as she spoke:

_**TOP SECRET NOFORN NOCOPY / FOUO / UN SECY GEN EYES ONLY**__  
__**SEQUENCE OF EVENTS / INCIDENT E  
**__Dr. Erich B. Weiss, Assistant Chief of Research and Development, NERV Germany_

_The following is a chronological sequence of events:_

_**September 15.**__ Eva Production Type Unit-02 was delivered to the facility from Dresden. This Eva was wrapped down completely, had to peel off protective covering in the clean area. Took about 10 hours for the polyethylene wrappers and the cryogenic lines (intended to keep the Eva cooled down while on transit) to be removed._

_**September 16.**__ Unit-02 given a full decontamination wash-down, then for testing we connected it to the power source and ran the initial system diagnostics. So far okay, no anomalies, not unlike what happened to Ikari (with the Test Type) more than a year ago._

_**September 17.**__ Full conference with R&D staff. After a full consensus, Doctor Kyoko Soryu decided to volunteer herself for the contact experiment. Later that day she went through a medical examination and psychological evaluation. Both tests confirmed her ready for the experiment._

_**September 18. 8:31 am.**__ Unit-02 prepped, connected and bolted on. All monitoring systems were on and running; sensors were online. It was decided that the following initial settings must be used: voltage (48.21 MeV), core freq (46.2 Ghz), plug depth (0.120), temperature (38.2 C); we should not repeat the earlier discrepancy made by Dr. Ikari, who used the wrong settings and thus responsible for her death. Soryu has undergone for a last checkup before suiting up. Entry Plug was inspected as per regulations and thus approved for use._

_**9:02 am.**__ Dr. Soryu ready and wearing a test suit. Resembling a scuba diver's suit, this test suit is made of thousands of sensors weaved into the suit fabric, all connected to a single processor and wireless telemetry unit located in the back. She tells us, however, that she wished her daughter (Asuka) be at least present to watch the test proceedings, but Chief Ikari, who's watching all this via teleconferencing from the AEL in Japan, disallowed such a privilege (perhaps due to the earlier trauma of letting his son watch the contact experiment for Unit-01). _

_**9:21 am.**__ Dr. Soryu boards the Entry Plug, and insertion is performed. Plug is filled with electrolyte (LCL) then power is connected to Unit-02. Harmonics stabilized at normal levels, as we were now running the experiment at recommended settings._

_**9:35 am.**__ Dr. Soryu orders us to adjust plug depth to 0.130. All normal at this point, except for a noticeable increase in synapse energy and brainwave activity coming from the Eva. Likewise, being the test subject, Dr. Soryu's brain activity exhibited unusual behavior, as her heart rate and breathing increased._

_**9:38 am.**__ Unit-02 goes out of control, when the plug depth unexpectedly plummeted to 1.148, which is considered a dangerous contamination level (Great Beyond Depth threshold is usually 0.180). Experiment aborted immediately, forced to eject the plug, then shut down the Eva. Damage is considerable, with Unit-02 having wrecked up the test site._

_**9:46 am.**__ With our rescue team, we managed to extricate Dr. Soryu from the plug, only to discover that despite she was still in generally good physical health and therefore have no external injuries, she was exhibiting symptoms of extreme psychological instability, including hysterical laughter and sudden fits of physical violence. It was decided that we have to subdue her with sedatives, then bring her into the hospital for further examination and observation. (For full video of entire experiment, please refer to video file 3019_SORYU_TEST_02)_

_**10:09 am.**__ Have no choice, but on Chief Ikari's strict orders we have to put Unit-02 under full scrutiny, and after three days of investigation will also have to lock down, seal and store that Eva under cryostasis until further notice. _

_**2:15 pm.**__ A team of psychologists concluded that psychological damage to Dr. Soryu was beyond recovery, and they have recommended confinement under indefinite close watch and under further notice. Official inquiry is now underway._

_**3:36 pm.**__ Mr. Langley arrived, demanding to know what happened to Dr. Soryu. Told him what happened, but I was puzzled about his unusually calm reaction regarding his wife's condition. Had a short conference thereafter with the medical staff; we do not wish to allow her daughter to see her in such a state, although the father insisted on having the girl visit her mother. I fear for the worst._

Asuka was silent once Misato was done. They couldn't quite clarify as to why her mom became insane, yet there was another file explaining why, dated a week after the incident:

_It was determined that during the experiment, somehow her soul was split into two parts; one was absorbed into the Eva, the other was left in her mind and physical body. Unfortunately this phenomenon caused serious psychological damage that she exhibited the following symptoms: (1) she exhibited child-like behavior similar to that of a five-year-old child; (2) a doll was provided to keep her preoccupied, that eventually became a substitute for her child; (3) she had apparent suicidal thoughts and therefore spoke of suicide and/or repeatedly strangled the doll until it was decapitated; (4) she was talking incoherently at times or spoke in child-like language; (5) completely unable to recognize anyone close to her, including her daughter Asuka or her spouse or her other co-workers._

_It is unfortunate for us and for her that all attempts at rehabilitating her by means of therapy and other available methods of treatment have failed to turn Dr. Soryu around; therefore we have concluded that this damage is permanent and irreversible and we recommend close monitoring of her deviant behavior. _

Finally, there was a police report on the suicide, two weeks after:

_At approximately 9:48 am, after receiving an emergency call from the hospital staff, we found Dr. Soryu's corpse hanging from the ceiling, with her daughter Asuka standing there, hysterically screaming and crying at the sight of her mother's corpse. Apparently the woman used her blanket, then while standing from her bed she punched out the fiberboard off the ceiling and tied the blanket onto a water pipe, before tying her neck and jumped off the bed. When we found the corpse, she was dead for about 30 minutes. Cause of death was asphyxiation by hanging. Except for the presence of her daughter, who presumably found her first, there was also no sign of any foul play. Although we have experts who can help the girl to give us a statement, Mr. Langley refused any attempts at communication with his daughter, citing privacy concerns._

Asuka closed her eyes and sighed, but Shinji comforted her by holding the girl's hand.

"I'm sorry," Shinji whispered.

The girl nodded. "I know, all this isn't going to bring her back," she said. "It's just that… No, she didn't told me it would be dangerous for her, yet it was her decision to take the risk."

"She didn't backed out," Misato added. "It was the part of her job to advance her field as much as possible, even if it meant risking her life. That's the hard reality of science, especially when moving into unknown territory."

Asuka shook her head. "That puts us in the same boat, right?" she asked Shinji, who nodded back in agreement, as they now both knew that they lost their mothers to the Evas.

"Me, too," Misato said. "Even if I despise him for that, Father died for what he believed in."

Asuka frowned. "What?"

"To make it short, he made up his S2 Theory, then went to Antarctica to find his proof and found it, tested it, and… Damn, it killed him." The woman sighed and bit her lip. "That's why you're not alone, and that's why we're all in this together, so remember that."

* * *

On the other hand, Rei and Kaworu were done buying dinner bento boxes for the five of them at the Cafeteria, and, carrying the boxes in take-out bags, they boarded the elevator back to the billeting floor. Once the doors closed on them, and the elevator lurched upward, they began to talk.

"It's been a close call," Kaworu said as he set one of the bags down on the floor and felt for the change in his pocket.

"Why?" Rei asked.

Kaworu sighed. "Asuka almost figured out who I really was, because I went too far by probing into her dream and telling her what better to do. At that moment, I thought I was so stupid… Otherwise, things would've been different had if she asked me if I was an Angel."

"She was being curious, wondering why you did that."

"Of course out of sympathy I had to intervene, and I have this unstoppable compulsion to be curious, to be sympathetic and then help people if they're in need."

Rei frowned a bit. "Do you think it is bad for you?"

Kaworu shook his head. "No, but at times I wonder if I was doing the right thing. I'm also trying to be very careful with the things I do."

The elevator slowed down and halted at the BOQ floor, and then the doors slid open, before they stepped out and walked towards Misato's quarters.

"Tell you what, Rei," Kaworu said. "You never fail to amaze me."

Rei blinked. "Why?"

"You discovered who you really were, you were speaking more often than you used to, and now… You even have a past life, and you called Shinji your brother." Kaworu then broke into a smile and chuckled. "Good thing the Commander hasn't seen you yet since the last time, and if he were to know what's really going on with you, well, he'll be greatly surprised."

Both of them were now standing right before the door.

"Speaking of him," Rei said. "It seems that he has forgotten me."

Kaworu shrugged. "He might be busy or thinking about Instrumentality or… I have no idea. He's still a strange man, after all." He then knocked twice and the door slid open, to see that Shinji was waiting for them. They also noted that Misato and Asuka were busy right in front of the laptop, probably reading something off the screen.

"What do we have now?" the Third Children asked, smiling, as they walked in, took off their footwear, and deposited the bags on the dinner table.

"_Sozai _for Rei and I," Kaworu said, reciting from the receipt, "you and Asuka get a beef gyudon special, and Misato has her spiced chicken teriyaki… and oh, there's some miso soup, takoyaki and dumplings… and be careful, they're all hot and fresh."

"Okay," Shinji said, nodding as he pulled the boxes out of the bags and gingerly set them on the table, as the contents were still hot.

While Rei, feeling exhausted, sat down on the sofa to rest and close her eyes for a while, Kaworu walked over to Misato and gave her the change he carried in his pocket. She counted the money and deposited it besides the laptop.

"We're reading more on Asuka's mom," Misato said.

"On what?" Kaworu asked.

"I'm trying to find out as to how she died," Asuka replied, tapping the scroll keys as she read.

Kaworu blinked. "Oh."

"She volunteered for the contact experiment," the redhead explained. "Never thought of backing out. She did it because she thought she was contributing something substantial to science."

This time Kaworu looked glum. "I see. Again, I'm sorry for your loss."

"That's okay," Asuka replied, nodding. "I'm reading this stuff to make things clear for me, because back then I didn't quite understand why she hanged herself, or why she kept talking of dying, or—" the girl shook her head. "I just wanted answers to many things that were left unsaid since I was four."

"I see," Kaworu agreed as he watched Shinji prepare the dinner table, laying out the food and the chopsticks and everything, even the dinnertime beverage of iced tea (with the exception of Misato, of course with an opened can of chilled Yebisu, for she couldn't enjoy dinner without this form of ambrosia).

"Dinner's ready," Shinji called out, before he walked over to the napping Rei and tapped her on the shoulder. She blinked.

"I am sorry for being tired," the girl said, but she stood up.

"No problem," Shinji reassured her.

Misato nodded to Asuka, and both women rose up and straightened out. "C'mon," she said. "You can come back to it if you want to."

"Okay," the redhead answered, and together they ambled towards the dinner table and sat down.

For a moment, Shinji realized that this was the first time they are now having a private dinner together, like a surrogate family. He first turned his attention to Asuka, seated besides him, and she smiled and said, "Feeling home?"

"Well, yeah," Shinji answered cheerfully, before he glanced at Rei and Kaworu, seated on their opposite. "Again, I feel as if almost everything that I wanted was handed back to me… and Ayanami, I guess I'll have to get used to calling you in a new way."

While everyone else chuckled, Rei blinked. "Pardon me, my brother?" she asked.

Shinji sighed and smiled. "It's going to be no big deal calling you my _sister_."

"Well?" Misato budged in, and the Children nodded without a word, as if saying "Go on".

As Misato was the eldest and thus placed at the head of the table, she finally had the honor of inaugurating their first dinner together as Team Eva by cracking a grin, clapping her hands together and then everyone loudly proclaimed the magic word: _"Itadakimasu!"_

**

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Strangely, I myself wanted to go on to the next chapter as fast as I can write, and to see what lies ahead, which is why I've done this in just four days. Now if you have noticed, lately I'm delving into heavy research in order to provide a different twist to the Eva saga, so expect heavy depth.

By the way, thank for following me this far, and I'm looking forward as you do for the next chapter. And of course… Good Evening and Happy Valentine's Day.

Next Chapter: The Night at the O-Club! (Service! Service!)


	34. The Night at the OClub

_This chapter's dedicated to the LRK and LAS fans out there, to Emily, and to SSD and Eric Blair. Belated Happy Valentine's Day._

_

* * *

Imparadised in one another's arms.  
_- John Milton (1608 - 1674), English writer.  
Referring to Adam and Eve, _Paradise Lost_

* * *

Dinnertime went smoothly, as this was the best Shinji had for the longest time. Sure, he didn't have a real family, which he longed for many years, for his father was shut completely in an ivory tower, and his mother's soul resided in the most notorious biological war machine ever built in the history of man, and yet…

He was with the only family he had; the eldest surrogate sister who boasted the sexiest body in the entire base, who can whip up a solid battle stratagem that she could go up against the likes of Rommel, Yamamoto, Patton or Nguyen Giap, and yet able to hold up to her own to even the stiffest drinks served at any dive; a redheaded girlfriend who, despite wielding a complete _tsundere _personality of a giant-cartoon-mallet-packing nagger worthy of a Taiga Aisaka or an Akane Tendou, had as much common ground with him in terms of past lives, ups and downs, which at first anyone think they came from very different worlds and upbringing, but anyway, they were on the same wavelength and Shinji could now speak his mind with her; a very understanding metrosexual friend who'd helped him snap out of his deep blue funk and get a grip at life, and somehow even in a very short time they hit it off like they were childhood pals since kindergarten; and a certain blue-haired girl who, at last, now completely related to Shinji in terms of genetics and thus in partial possession of his mother's personality.

Shinji noted that since it was almost close to Christmas Day, he finally figured out that this was the best gift he gave to himself, without cost, without strings attached nor can be sold or bought or traded. It was priceless, just as that famous Visa advertisement said so.

However, it wasn't just Shinji who was enjoying all this, as he talked about school and the various hijinks he had with Kensuke and Toji, but each of them had their own little anecdotes to tell and laugh (or in Rei's case, merely smile) about.

In this moment lasting approximately forty minutes, they forgot the mole with his plastic bombs, yesterday's terrorist attack and the attempted home invasion that followed, the specter of SEELE lurking a thousand kilometers away, nine Mass-Production Evas waiting to be unleashed, political intrigue on a global scale, Commander Ikari brooding somewhere as Chairman Lorenz was quietly making chess moves for a hostile takeover, and… in Kaworu's case, the Seventeenth Angel just threw out his original secret mission of subjugating NERV.

For tonight, to hell with all that, and just once he wanted to be a normal teenager who also wanted to have his first night out with friends... No, with his _own family_, really.

With this surrogate family that he now belonged to, what more Shinji Ikari could ask for?

So priceless.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 34:THE NIGHT AT THE O-CLUB  
(A Valentine's Day/Christmas Season Special)  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 2/16/2011 19:12 a2/p2

* * *

"Okay, this is the last batch we have, Lieutenant," one of the officers in charge of reconnaissance systems told Makoto Hyuga, as the final downloads from NERV's orbital reconsat and from the organization's own UAV came into the computer's hard drive.

With hands on the keyboard and mouse, Makoto adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses and checked every high-resolution picture right on the screen; each picture was taken with a 60-megapixel CCD digital camera from the reconnaissance satellite, and from the 30-megapixel camera mounted on the sensor ball on the nose of an unarmed variant of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator; the UAV was programmed to fly a predetermined flight path over Gotenba, Mishima, Numazu, Atami, Odawara and Minamiashigara.

As requested, Misato wanted full camera passes over the _Jietai _(Self-Defense Force) formations that grew in strength for the past two weeks, to determine the actual composition of those forces, and to plan a contingency measure to deal with them, in the event should the government becomes hostile on NERV.

Earlier in the mission, when one of the _Jietai_ generals called up directly and demanded as to why there was a Predator buzzing right on top of one of their divisions, Makoto coolly replied that they were conducting a harmless and legitimate photoreconnaissance survey for post-battle damage assessment, and he even presented two documents (by email attachment) that justified the flyover.

Anyway, the pictures showed combat vehicles parked in formation, and some of them tallied with the inventory that was on the list which he earlier presented to Misato.

Satisfied, he nodded to the other officer and said, "I think it doesn't hurt if it's okay to make a copy, right?"

The OIC nodded. "No problem, Hyuga, and anything we can do to help your boss. You're okay to copy."

"Thanks," Makoto replied as he plugged the USB flash drive into the port and began copying the photos, and then he pulled out his mobile phone and dialed Misato's number. No more than ten seconds she received the call.

"It's me, so how things are going?" Misato asked.

"I got them," Makoto answered. "Copying them right now."

"And how they're holding up?"

Makoto sighed. "Buildup's getting heavier as we speak. They've added MLRS and 102mm howitzer batteries, along with a few ECM and commo trucks." He was referring to Multiple-Launch Rocket System tracked missile launchers, howitzers, and trucks bearing electronic countermeasures and communication equipment.

"Looks like they're getting real serious about us, huh?"

"Oh, sure," he said, "But, did I just heard someone with you?" Makoto noted that he could hear some other voices in the background.

"Yeah, it's Shinji and Asuka, they're dressed up and having a bit of a grooming issue," Misato confirmed. "We're going to the O-Club."

Makoto chuckled. "Oh, I forgot," he replied. "Guess I'll have to change into civvies." _Civvies_ meant wearing civilian clothing.

"Good, 'cause for tonight let's drop work, hang out there and relax," Misato said. "Have you eaten already?"

"Yeah. Had yakudon while watching the recon guys do their stuff."

"Can you still hold your drink?"

"Probably," Makoto said, feeling unsure. "It's been about… what? There's a month since the last time I had my bottle of beer."

"That's not a problem. I'll see you bridge guys later, okay?"

Makoto grinned. "Okay, later, Misato. Thanks."

"Thank you, too." She then hung up.

As he pocketed the phone, Makoto sighed and wondered whom he wanted to dance with. Was it Misumi Kuroda, the girl manning the workstation just below him, close to Casper? Or Sheryl Yuen, working at Records and whom he sometimes talked to while borrowing a folder or two. He also thought of what to wear, too; maybe a good shirt and a pair of jeans would cut it.

No, perhaps maybe he could ask Misato even for a little dance, for the sake of unrequited love.

* * *

In his own miniscule room, a few doors away from Misato's quarters, Kaworu Nagisa was in front of the mirror, finished buttoning up his microfiber black shirt over a white cotton t-shirt. He was also wearing a pair of light-green pants and the same white sneakers that were issued to him prior to his departure. Kaworu also guessed that by now, Rei was done showering, and probably wearing the civilian clothes that Asuka had lent to her.

Just then Rei walked in with towel in hand, and a plastic bag containing her school uniform and Kaworu's toiletries, and hung both on the hat rack just behind the door. She was wearing a white baby t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans and her usual white plimsoll shoes.

"Oh, that was fast," Kaworu noted.

"I did not bother too much about personal appearances," Rei said. "Girls in my school tend to do so, worrying about their faces."

"Pimples, right?"

"Yes," Rei confirmed, before she went over to Kaworu and straightened out his collar and sleeves with her hands.

"Now you're doing this just like a mother," he remarked.

Rei smiled. "I know. It is now my instinct."

* * *

"You're okay with that?" Asuka questioned Shinji as she combed her hair right in front of the mirror. She could also hear Misato showering in the bathroom, humming to a song that she didn't know; probably an old _enka_

song.

The Second Children was wearing a pink camisole and a long-sleeved cashmere sweater of the same color, a white miniskirt and a pair of low-profile Sketchers, while the Third Children had put on a black Uniqlo t-shirt, blue jeans and Adidas sneakers.

"Yeah," Shinji answered. "I feel comfortable wearing them, and Misato said 'casuals', isn't it?"

Now Asuka sprayed herself with a bottle of Nenuco, a popular Spanish baby cologne brand. "Want some of my cologne?" she offered.

Shinji sniffed, figured the scent seemed refreshing, but he shook his head. "No, it's okay."

"C'mon, just try it," Asuka badgered. "It's unisex."

"What does that mean?"

"Dummy dear, it means that either boys or girls can wear it."

Shinji nodded. "Oh… Okay," he agreed before she began to spray his neck and collar.

* * *

After toweling, then dressing up in a blue skirt, a white camisole topped over with a yellow blouse, Misato picked up her mobile phone sitting on the edge of the wash basin and dialed Fuyutsuki's number. The elderly Sub-Commander picked up after a few rings.

"Yes?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"It's me again, sir. Just a change of venue," Misato answered.

"Where?"

"At the O-Club, so I'll bring a laptop instead."

"I see. Guess I'll have to dress up, then. Why there?"

"Almost everyone wanted to go 'cause they got promoted."

Fuyutsuki chuckled. "I forgot. It's perfectly all right for you people to let off some steam and enjoy yourselves. Okay, I'll see you later there instead."

Misato nodded. "Thank you, sir. We'll have to go now," she said, before disconnecting. The woman then sighed, picked up a hairbrush and said, "Sometimes I have to mix business with pleasure."

* * *

Like any military or scientific installation almost far from civilization, NERV HQ was built to be entirely self-sufficient, making it resemble effectively as a small town: apart from laboratories and research facilities, it also boasted of quarters for both permanent personnel and visitors, cafeterias and restaurants, a stockade, bathhouses and swimming pools, a pair of convenience stores (the world's lowest Lawson's branches), a bank, a movie house, chapels, temples and a mosque, a full sports complex, a huge library, a heliport, a geothermal power plant, farms, gardens and a park, and of course, the Officers' Club, the Non-Commissioned Officers' (NCO) Club, and the Enlisted Men's (EM) Club.

The three dives, sited just near the linear train station (and far enough from the main HQ pyramid, following the "out of sight, out of mind" dictum), were suggested by some American personnel years ago, who were employed early in the history of the organization, as they felt it was difficult and time-consuming back then to go all the way up to the ground to enjoy the Hakone night life. Patterned after their military forebears, these nightclubs had their own stock of booze, skilled bartenders, in-house bands, and bouncers (who were really volunteers from the security brigades).

Unlike their civilian counterparts outside the fence, there were no blond-haired hostesses hanging around and certainly no costly Ladies' Drinks to pay for; each patron is limited to at least eight bottles or cans, or until visibly inebriated and must be asked to leave; and these dives all closed at one in the morning.

At the moment, Team Eva was standing right before the O-Club's two-story façade, its sign flashing brightly in neon tubing as throngs of off-duty personnel, some of them parking their bicycles on the racks, approached the doors and let the volunteer bouncers check them out before they were admitted inside. The air in the Geofront was also cool, the 320 giant ventilators above their heads blowing in fresh December air from the outside.

Before they left their quarters, apart from locking the doors, Misato wrapped Kaji's box in the same plastic bag used for transport, and then hid it in the closet. She also reminded the night duty attendant to let no one enter their quarters without her explicit permission.

"Well?" Misato asked the Children, who felt like blinking initiates to an unknown inner sanctum, in varying degrees of unease and uncertainty. The woman, with her laptop (and Kaji's SD card still slotted in) in its bag and hanging from her shoulder, noted their speechlessness. She then sighed and said, "Don't worry, if you couldn't understand something, ask me as I know things like these like the back of my hand."

"Okay," Shinji said, his hand holding Asuka's.

"So, what else I'm gonna expect inside?" the redhead asked, her pink purse dangling from the shoulder. While on their way to the pub, Asuka had explained to Rei about the purpose of the purse, which was to keep in her personal belongings such as money, debit and ID cards, favorite makeup and a phone. To be honest, she was enjoying the role being a tutor to Rei in everything she knew about normal teenage life.

"Apart from the drinks, which there are some non-alcoholic stuff," Misato continued explaining, "if you want to, anyone can dance and request a song, sing karaoke, play an instrument, recite some poetry, or do some stand-up or _rakugo_ comedy. There's also foosball, air hockey, a UFO Catcher, darts, a _purikura _booth, pool, arcade machines… Well, this is where everyone lets their hair down; name it, it has everything."

"Ah, I see," Rei said, nodding.

"Quite interesting," Kaworu remarked.

"All right, guys, let's get in," Misato finally ordered, "and don't worry about the bouncers; they're friendly 'cause I know them and I hope they know who you are."

The two bouncers were tall and beefy as wrestlers, and were clad in black t-shirts and jeans. As they walked towards the door, one of them upraised his hand and greeted in a baritone voice: "Colonel, good evening."

"Good evening, Lieutenant," Misato replied, for she knew the bouncer's cuff rank as she frequently patronized the pub, mostly in her earlier days of her Tokyo-3 assignment.

"Why them?" the bouncer asked, pointing out at the Children.

"They're under my command."

The bouncer looked worried. "Ah, the Eva pilots… But this is an over-twenty hootch, Colonel Katsuragi. We're not supposed to serve stiff booze and brew to minors," he warned.

"But we do have some non-alcoholic drinks, right?" Misato questioned.

"Yeah, ma'am," the bouncer confirmed.

"And minors can be supervised by a guardian, is it correct?"

"That's an affirmative."

"Finally, is there a non-smoking section?"

"Sure, no problem, ma'am. It's to the left of the stage."

Misato sighed in pleasure. "Well then, that settles everything. Thank you."

In approval, the bouncers nodded and grinned like Cheshire Cats. "All of you are in. Welcome to the O-Club and have a nice evening," they both greeted and then ushered them through the doors.

Once inside, they were quite surprised just how big it really looked than on the outside, with NERV memorabilia and framed pictures nailed and tacked onto the walls, along with Christmas decorations festooned about; and at the moment, an impromptu jazz band onstage was playing a Louis Armstrong number; besides the door a bunch of Aussies were crowded around the foosball table, swilling their beer and cheering; two men were quietly playing chess on one table and sharing a bottle of Jack Daniel's, while there was a British group playing darts; a posse of Americans were gathered around the pool table, swilling from bottles of Budweiser; some patrons were engaged at the arcade consoles, playing fighting games. The atmosphere was redolent with some hint of cigarette smoke, but completely saturated with the cacophony of music, loud talking and mobile phone ringtones.

On the right side of the stage was the bar, stocked with every bottle of booze from floor to ceiling, and the bartender and his assistant were busy serving drinks to thirsty patrons, the taps flowing with beer, filling up mugs with the golden nectar.

Misato led the Children to their table, fortunately with no one else occupying it, and they sat on the cushy seats. Each table, covered in white linen, had a small lit candle, salt and pepper shakers, a napkin holder in the middle, and four copies of the menu. She then laid down the laptop bag, picked up one of the menu cards lying on the table, and asked amiably, "Do you have anything to order? A drink perhaps to kick off things?"

Kaworu and Rei, being completely unaccustomed to their new surroundings, merely shrugged, but Shinji and Asuka were both of them reading off the list on the menu.

"I'm gonna be okay with a Shirley Temple," Asuka said. "No, make that two; one for me, and another for Rei."

"I'd like a root beer float," Shinji said, looking up.

Misato turned her attention to the other Children. "Kaworu, do you want something?"

Kaworu nodded. "Oh, I'll take what Shinji wants, and I'd like to try it."

"Great," Misato said cheerfully with an upraised hand to catch a passing waiter's attention. One of those waiters saw her and approached, then asked what she was ordering, and heard her request, including a tall Guinness for herself. Once done the waiter headed off to the direction of the bar.

Just then the band finished their number, walked off the stage, and the lights were dimmed. In their place and further up the stage, a black DJ wearing a Marc Ecko shirt took over with his turntable and mixer, put on a Paul Van Dyk track, and with a microphone began to make his introduction: "Good evening, people! This is DJ Les and welcome to the O-Club! Are you having a great time tonight?"

The crowd responded with a resounding "Yeah!" in several languages.

"Word has reached me that we have some special guests tonight. Know who they are?"

Cheers erupted, the throng anxiously demanding to know.

"WE GOT 'EM CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE!" DJ Les declared.

Suddenly the spotlight was trained upon Team Eva's table and this time louder cheers and whistles came from the crowd, applauding their presence. All four Children were bewildered and blushing furiously at first, not expecting to have this much homage given to them, but Misato was laughing loudly.

Realizing that their celebrity status had just hit them, Asuka waved her hand and grinned. She then turned to Shinji, who was visibly blinking amidst the spotlight, and asked, "Aren't you glad we're the life of the party?"

"Uh…" Shinji mumbled, not sure how to react.

Instead Asuka shook her head and laughed at the wary boy.

On the other hand, Kaworu simply shrugged, but Rei, in apparent disbelief, blinked twice.

"Guess we'll have to wave our hands, just to tell them we're okay with them," he suggested, before they all waved their hands, to the delight of the throng.

"Now that they're here to bless this night," DJ Les exclaimed, "Why don't we start things with some party pumpers from the Nineties?" The patrons roared in approval when the DJ laid in a track from Naughty by Nature, diverting their attention away from the Children, and just in time the waiter finally arrived with their drinks on a tray.

"Okay… Two Shirley Temples for the ladies," the waiter said as he set the non-alcoholic cocktails from his tray and onto the table; both glasses held a dark orange liquid with ice and a maraschino cherry, along with an orange slice for garnish.

"Thank you," Asuka said while Rei nodded. The First Children, curious about the cocktail presented before her, began to eye its contents.

Still upbeat. the waiter grinned. "For you two guys, here's your root beer floats, all nicely done," he said, setting the filled mugs in front of Shinji and Kaworu.

"Much thanks," Shinji said.

"This looks… interesting, but thanks," Kaworu added as he hefted and inspected his mug, which was filled almost to the brim with A&W, and the last inch topped off with whipped cream.

"And to the Colonel," the waiter finally said as he placed the tall, frosted mug of Guinness Stout right before Misato.

"Oh, thank you," Misato said, beaming and then she handed the waiter his tip of a 500-yen bill.

The waiter nodded in satisfaction and said, "My pleasure. Enjoy your evening." He then left them alone, now allowing them privacy for themselves.

"So, this is what a night-out looks like," Shinji commented.

"Yeah," Asuka agreed. "What do you think?"

Shinji nodded. "Cool. My first time, really."

"So do we," Kaworu added as Rei nodded. "Never been in a place like this before," he said.

"Okay, guys… I'll teach you a bit of etiquette when hanging out right in a joint like this," Misato finally spoke. "First, just before we raise our glasses, say _kampai _and take the first drink, what do you wish for?" she asked them all.

The Children were now quizzing themselves as to what they wanted, before Kaworu was the first to answer: "To an uninterrupted friendship," he said, raising his mug.

In imitation of her boyfriend, Rei softly smiled as she lifted her glass and said, "To my brother, and to my love."

"Thank you, Ayanami," Shinji said, nodding, before he turned his attention to Kaworu. "Congratulations, Nagisa."

"I promise, I'll take good care of her," Kaworu avowed before he chuckled.

Asuka sighed and hoisted her glass, but said pleasantly, "This one's for Mama."

Misato nodded, holding up her mug. "To Kaji, his kisses and his cache-o-truth… and what about you, Shinji?"

Shinji blinked. "Me?"

"Yeah. Got an idea?"

'Oh," the young man blurted. "Okay… This one's for all of you, to peace… and to Mother," he wistfully said, now holding his mug aloft.

And Misato declared, _"Kampai!"_ as their glasses clanked in mid-air, before they drank.

* * *

About ten meters away from their table, two men were sitting at a small table, dressed in sport shirts and jeans, swilling from their bottles of Kirin, smoking Mild Sevens, and popping wasabi peanuts into their mouths. One of them then whispered into the sleeve of his shirt, which had a small microphone pinned to, and said, "We're on station. Target's present and is right ahead of us."

"Copy that. Keep an eye on them," the surveillance leader answered, in a British accent, through the first man's earphone. "Just don't get drunk," he warned. "We've got all night to do this."

The first man nodded. "Roger that, sir."

* * *

Inside a nondescript Toyota service van, just fifty meters away from the O-Club, Deputy Director Morrissey adjusted his headphones and squinted at the flat-panel display that showed him the dive from the inside, through regular security and surveillance cameras. More than half of the van was filled with electronic gear dedicated to eavesdropping, and if needed can transmit and relay data to others within the command chain on a need-to-know basis. He then picked up his mobile phone and called Commander Ikari, who was watching their progress from his office.

"We have some progress, Commander," Morrissey reported. "Nagisa is with the others, along with Colonel Katsuragi."

"What are they doing?" Gendo asked, as the Englishman extended their video feed right into the Commander's computer. He then leaned forward to see what they were looking at.

"Having cocktails, sir. Check out Camera 4, and there they are."

Gendo nodded, but grimaced at the same time. "Very good, but you people must give me an hourly progress report. Is that clear?"

"That's an affirmative, Commander," Morrissey replied.

* * *

Gendo put down the phone on its cradle, and he stood up from his seat. He then paced around, thinking of the hours ahead. Everything was in place, as Morrissey had reported earlier, ready to follow Kaworu wherever he goes.

He'd already read the reports that were obtained from that boy's synchronization test just a few hours after he arrived, especially with Maya's summarization of what Kaworu was able to do: he was capable of manipulating his sync rate like so much tweaking the volume of a stereo.

Of course, Gendo knew it was too amazing that Kaworu was already suspect, that he now concluded that the Committee sent him an _Angel, _a wonderful gift with a deadly twist.

And then he thought of what Rei was doing right now with him; she was supposed to report on his movements, but neglected to do so.

Then what was going on with that girl? What she was really doing with Kaworu?

Gendo frowned, finally figuring out that they were probably having an affair, and was it a sign of her rebellion, betraying his trust he placed upon her? Was she trying to break away from him, cutting out the bonds that he established with Rei?

He then thought of the previous Rei who'd been very loyal and compliant to him, and he remembered the girl lowering her personal inhibitions whenever he came to her. True, he raised her, trained the girl personally, and tried to instill his personality as much as he could.

Gendo shook his head, as he realized that Rei, despite being the vessel that he intended to use to bring his wife back from the beyond, was still very much a teenager, struggling to learn the complexities of life at that stage of her life.

Sooner or later, however, in the next few hours he will bring to Rei the harsh meaning of the word _obedience_, and he had no qualms at taking Kaworu away, forcing that boy to serve his own purposes.

Even if it meant killing the Fifth Children by his own hand to fulfill the prophecies.

* * *

DJ Les was now playing a slow song from Boyz II Men - _On Bended Knee _- on his turntable, thus softening the atmosphere in the pub and couples began to come down onto the dance floor. By then the Children and their guardian had imbibed their drinks almost halfway to empty. Kaworu and Rei both commented that they never drank something this delicious in their whole lives, a welcome and refreshing change.

But Asuka noted the white moustache of creamy foam on Kaworu's upper lip. "Hey, look at that, Kaworu," she remarked, giggling.

Kaworu blinked. "What?"

"You got a milk moustache," Asuka said as she took out a tiny mirror from her purse and showed his reflection in the mirror.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Kaworu exclaimed as he reached out to pick up a napkin and dabble his lip on it, and they all laughed, except for Rei, who could only daintily cover her mouth with a hand in light mirth.

That act, however, didn't escape Asuka's gaze, and she leaned forward. "Hmmmm… I've never seen you do that, Wondergirl," she said.

"I am amused," Rei answered, blushing and smiling lightly.

"You're laughing, Ayanami?" Shinji excitedly questioned as Asuka brought out her phone and snapped a picture of the First Children in smiles.

Rei nodded. "Yes."

The girl's admission brought applauses from her companions, before Asuka noted that the DJ was now playing a new song: Angela Aki's _This Love._

"Shinji?" Asuka asked, tabling her half-full glass of Shirley Temple.

The young man blinked. "Yeah?"

Asuka smiled. "Wanna come with me and dance?" she offered, pointing at the direction of the dance floor.

"Sure," he answered and then took her hand as they rose from their seats and went off.

"Good luck, guys," Misato chimed as she watch them took their place among the other dancing couples. "Isn't it sweet?" she remarked to both Kaworu and Rei, who were fingering their drinks. "Want to join them?" Misato suggested.

Rei and Kaworu looked at each other for a second, before he agreed. "Okay, if that's what you want," he said, and then he turned to Rei and asked, "Will you come with me?"

Rei nodded. "Yes."

This time the other couple slowly got up and left, Kaworu gracefully taking Rei's hand as they walked together towards the dance floor.

Left alone, Misato, teary-eyed, sighed and smiled in triumph, and at the same time having bittersweet feelings in her heart. "I wish you were here to see this, Kaji," she remarked, swallowing hard, before making another toast to her lover. "God, I'm so proud to be their guardian."

* * *

For the first time in years, Kozo Fuyutsuki wore a shirt under a brown jacket with elbow patches, and a pair of brown tweed pants. If he could remember correctly the last time he wore this ensemble (which was normally hanging in his closet, wrapped in plastic), it was eleven years ago, back when there was Gehirn, when Yui was in corporeal form, and he then worked as an assistant chief researcher. He tried to use his long-neglected bottle of Old Spice on the dresser, but to no avail the bottle had dried out over the years, forcing him to pass by Lawson's in the main HQ and bought a bottle of cheap aftershave.

Now, once he entered the dimmed sanctum sanctorum of the O-Club, he breathed in and scanned the crowd around him, looking for Misato. Amidst the crowds, with the resident DJ playing a love song, he found her at the far side of the room, left of the stage.

He walked up, squeezing himself through the crowd, and settled on the vacant seat that Misato offered to him.

"Good evening, sir," Misato greeted. "I've never seen you wear something other than your usual uniform."

"That's right," Fuyutsuki said. "Where are the Children?"

Misato grinned. "Oh, they're dancing."

The elderly man sighed, saw the Children in two separate swaying couples, and said, "Well, well, well… they're now acting their age." He then chuckled. "No, make that _a coming of age._"

'Sure they do, sir," she remarked.

"And I'll call that a case of healthy progress." He then pointed at the laptop, which was now up and running. "Do you have something for me?"

"Of course, sir," Misato said as she turned the laptop around, facing Fuyutsuki. "Nagisa has just found much of Kaji's cache, in his garden."

Fuyutsuki blinked. "How?"

Misato explained that, acting on her request, Kaworu and Rei went over to Kaji's garden, weeded and watered his plants, and just before they were about to leave, Kaworu accidentally tripped over the box, pulled it out and brought it to her.

"Where is it?"

"I've left it in our quarters," Misato said, "but Kaji had also included a memory card with most of his files inside, so I brought it along with me."

"I see. Can you show me what's inside?"

Misato nodded, and opened one of the files. From his pocket, the old man took out his reading glasses and wore them, before he leaned forward to scrutinize closely and in minutes he was skimming each and every one of the files.

"Where he managed to get all of this?" Fuyutsuki asked in an incredulous tone.

"Only he knows," Misato replied. "What's necessary is that everything that we need is in there."

Now Fuyutsuki was pondering, figuring out what to do with this stupendous hoard of data sitting right before him, and then he remembered how he tried to bring Gendo down, but that plan was foiled when he was offered the opportunity to work alongside him, out of the need to fulfill Yui's wishes.

But to divulge these revelations right now… He wasn't sure if that was the right time to do so; if he did immediately, that meant risking his leadership, and he needed that leadership to maintain the cohesiveness of the entire organization.

On the other hand, if he could plan and time it correctly, they could switch the table around and cause SEELE's monster to turn against those old men. But when?

"There's another thing I'd like to tell you, sir," Misato said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Pardon me?" Fuyutsuki questioned as he pocketed the glasses.

"You may not believe me," Misato answered, indicating Rei dancing with Kaworu in the distance, "but… Rei now possesses the memories of Yui Ikari, Shinji's mother."

This time the elderly man's mouth gaped in total disbelief, as if he was solidly kicked in the rear. "How… How that happened?" he mumbled.

Misato took a breath, and began to explain how Rei fainted at the mere sight of Yui's picture, fell into a strange trance, and then woke up to discover that she carried a secret past that Unit-01 had earlier implanted into her mind while it went out of control during the failed compatibility test.

"…and then Rei called Shinji her _brother_," Misato concluded.

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Brother?"

Misato smiled. "Cross my heart, but that's what she said. You said before that you and the Commander cloned her from Doctor Ikari's DNA, right?"

"That's true," he confirmed.

"And that means, in genetic terms… Shinji and Rei are _siblings_."

The old man sighed and laughed. "Goodness, I never thought I'm living the day that the truth about these two will come in an unlikely way. Frankly, I would also like to see the reaction on Ikari's face if he ever finds out."

"That'll be interesting, sir… But, would you like to order a drink or something?" Misato offered, indicating her now-empty mug.

"Get me a tall Kirin," Fuyutsuki said, nodding. "We'll leave all other business for tomorrow, and make ourselves merry tonight, shall we?"

"Okay, sir."

And just as Misato was about to stand up and leave for the bar, suddenly a group arrived right before their table: Makoto, Maya and Shigeru, Ritsuko, Tsutomo and Natsumi, then Trudy and Paul; the entire posse was dressed up for the occasion.

Ritsuko, wearing a blue dress and her hair dyed blonde once again, and being the highest-ranking officer in the group, gave a smile and said, "You're not alone, sir. Mind if we could join you?"

* * *

Color Me Badd's _Wildflower _was now on the turntable, as Rei snuggled closer to Kaworu, his hands behind her back as they danced and rocked slowly, in imitation of the other couples doing the same thing.

"I'm going to be very honest, Rei," Kaworu whispered, while he was cautious not to step onto Rei's feet.

"Yes?" Rei questioned.

"It's my first time that I'm dancing, and my first time being here," he admitted.

Rei smiled. "This is also my first," she said.

Kaworu sighed. "It feels so good to experience something new, and there's a certain kind of magic of discovering these new things first-hand, rather than by merely reading them from a book or the TV."

"You are right," Rei agreed.

"Another thing that makes you amazing… it's the first time I heard you laugh, even if it's soft."

"I did not know that I feel good once I was able to laugh," Rei answered.

Kaworu nodded. "That's true… and I just realized something."

"What is it?"

"The secret to the tenacity of the lilim isn't just the mere acquisition and storage of knowledge," Kaworu said. "It's hope, the hope for the future, which is why they can rise and rebuild from the ashes after a cataclysm or war. It's what motivates them to live, to fight on, to make their dreams a reality. Even with love, many still hope to find it, like what's happening right now, and what we have found for ourselves."

"I think you are right in saying so," Rei said. "There is still hope for us."

"And with hope, we have nothing else to fear," Kaworu concluded.

* * *

On the other hand, Shinji and Asuka, in an embrace, were watching the other couple dance and whisper to each other, before they turned their attention to themselves, swaying while being careful not to bump into others.

"Now they really hit it off," Asuka remarked. "Just look at them, and they're learning fast."

Shinji snickered softly. "Uh, is there such a word called _reinvention_?"

Asuka nodded. "Yeah, if I'm correct, it means the radical change of something or somebody, in terms of appearance, presentation, form or function."

"Ah… Then Ayanami has reinvented herself."

"Yeah," Asuka agreed, "and in a single week she went from a boring wallflower to a real person. That's for the books, yet to me she still hasn't changed the way she speaks."

Shinji sighed and then said, "Ever since Kaworu came here, things have changed so much for the past few days, and it's quite fast, like a roller coaster ride."

"Uh-huh," Asuka murmured.

"But in the process, we discover who we really are, and what's our purpose being here."

"That's _self-discovery_."

The Third Children grinned. "Oh, thanks… There's such a word, after all."

"You're welcome for me to expand your vocabulary, my dummy Shinji," Asuka mocked.

This time both of them shook and laughed, before they almost quieted themselves down.

"Know what?" Asuka whispered. "In my whole life I never danced in something like a prom."

Shinji blinked. "A prom?"

"Yeah, a promenade is a school dance," Asuka clarified. "Just like the kind of dances you have on the night of a cultural festival in school, and in America they always have that event in their high schools, like the ones you see in the movies. It's a formal tradition, a kind of a rite of passage that they look forward to."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh, and as far as I'm concerned, this one is close enough to a real prom, and we're not yet even sixteen years old."

* * *

Meanwhile the rest of Misato's crew had commandeered several empty tables and chairs, and then linked them together to form a long table. The waiter then delivered a full round of drinks among the group, including a hibachi to barbecue strips of marinated beef. They sat down, with Fuyutsuki being placed right at the head of this impromptu table as the patriarch of the "family".

"Say, ma'am, those Children are now going steady?" Maya asked, being the consummate romantic, but she hasn't touched her beer. "Isn't that so sweet and romantic?"

Misato nodded. "Damn right," she confirmed, pointing her finger at the dancing couples.

"Whoa," Makoto awed as Maya giggled and blushed.

"Never in a million years can this happen," Shigeru remarked. "Shinji and Asuka were, back then, like oil and water because we can't mix them."

"That's right," Ritsuko agreed after a puff of her Mild Seven, tapping the cigarette on the rim of the ashtray. "But that's changed. They got the gist of who they really are."

"And in growing up they also broke down the walls," Misato added before making another quaff of her beer.

"Quite poetic, Colonel," Fuyutsuki said, nodding. "Where's Director Hamamoto?" he asked Tsutomo.

"Still busy, sir," Tsutomo answered. "Usually neck-deep in paperwork."

Fuyutsuki made a face. "Ah, I see… That's too bad, he should be here, enjoying himself."

"But, on the other hand, we've conducted a full inspection of the arsenal. Every piece has been accounted for, all of them in good working condition."

"Very good," Fuyutsuki commended, "and Major, how's it going?"

Paul, his rank being mentioned, stood up and said, "Received a new ship, then Trudy and I made a test hop a few hours ago." He was referring to his new Cheyenne gunship. "She's smooth to the touch, sir."

Now the Children were coming, all four of them were in smiles as they walked back to their table, but were surprised to see that everyone had showed up, and they applauded.

"Oh, what's that for?" Asuka demanded in a rather lighthearted tone.

"I think we really made them happy," Shinji answered as the Children sat down among their elder peers.

Fuyutsuki, quite pleased with his people and their presence, stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I think it's time for a toast, but first, let me speak."

Everyone nodded back at him, wanting to hear as they picked up their filled glasses and mugs, and stood up in unison.

"It's been a turbulent year for all of us, beginning with Shinji's first battle when he first came here, and we were able to meet that very first challenge of our lives. From there we witnessed triumph and tragedy, happiness and sadness, through hell and high water, and yet the one thing that kept us going is a very simple word, and that word is _hope_."

"Hear, hear," his audience intoned.

Fuyutsuki sighed, and he turned his attention to Shinji and Asuka. "To you two, it's been a very long way since the first time you saw each other, and at first you weren't able to get along, you have your faults, and we all thought you two weren't made for each other… But, Miss Langley, after you made the decision to stay, everything changed as you have discovered who you really were."

Asuka nodded in acknowledgement. "Thank you… But call me Asuka instead, sir."

Fuyutsuki smiled. "Thank you for reminding me, Asuka, I'll take your word… and now, Shinji."

Shinji blinked. "Pardon me?"

"I wish your mother were here to see you, as I think you've finally matured for even a short time, so I'm thankful that you learned much, understood and overcame your own weaknesses. Don't ever change that."

This time Shinji blushed. "Thank you, sir," he said, nodding.

"Now," Fuyutsuki said, "Kaworu Nagisa, for even you're a newcomer, we have a reason to be thankful for you."

Kaworu nodded, blinking. "Why, sir?"

"The best thing about your presence is that you're a catalyst for change. You maybe considered the best, but what is more admirable about you is your generosity and your propensity to help people, especially your teammates within Project E… and had it not for your intervention, it would be very difficult even for us to turn them around."

"I appreciate that, sir. Much thanks," Kaworu answered as he smiled.

"Keep the good work, son," Fuyutsuki said. "Finally, in the same way a white rose blossoms in full from a simple bud, you have changed much, Rei Ayanami."

The First Children blinked. "Sir?"

Fuyutsuki nodded. "That's right. You never fail to astound the people around you, as you have transformed yourself into a better person. I admit that, back then you were almost mechanical, almost devoid of emotion and having this unfeeling, as if you were impervious to pain. Yet even you have your own personality, you have a heart and a mind of your own. Then Nagisa came and changed all that, and you were not the same again but instead… I'd say you've come to age, and so I commend your emerging maturity."

Rei bowed her head. "Thank you, Sub-Commander," she said, now blushing completely.

The elderly ex-professor gazed at his subordinates, who hung on every word he uttered, and with his glass of beer aloft he toasted, "To the Children… and to Kaji, Akagi, and Ikari."

"Hear, hear!" the assembled adults cheered louder, before they all tossed down their drinks, and at the same time with the rest of the pub hearing all this and watching them, the patrons yelled and whistled in approval, and that really brought the house down.

* * *

In the surveillance van, Morrissey yanked the headphones away from his head, as the recorded roar coming from the planted bugs nearly blew out his eardrums. Wincing and his ears smarting as he adjusted the volume, he said aloud, "What the hell's going on with those people?"

His assistant, seated just a yard away, merely shrugged.

* * *

Now the party in the O-Club was in full swing, the cheerful atmosphere rejuvenating and moving even the most laggard of spirits. DJ Les (his real name was Lieutenant Leslie Booker Smith of the Eva Maintenance Division, and formerly an aircraft mechanic of the US Navy) was now busy, taking requests from eager patrons as he played one song after another; the Children and the Sub-Commander's presence graced the scene; all was magnificent inside the dive.

As they cooked and ate the strips of beef on the hibachi (except for Rei and Kaworu, of course, being self-declared vegetarians and so they opted for salad bowls), Trudy and Paul thought it a great opportunity to present to their friends about their own version of yesterday's events, their hands imitating the flight of their gunships as they narrated their war story. Misato, Shinji and Asuka corroborated with the pilots, adding their own experience of fighting off their attackers as the Cheyennes went for the kill to rescue them.

With their turn, Misato and Tsutomo explained on how the home invader Oda tried to kill Asuka but instead got the dose of his own medicine, and Misato humorously added that no one should underestimate her capacity to fight, even when intoxicated.

Not wanting to be outdone, Asuka and Shinji recounted their laughable "married couple" experiences, beginning with their first encounter on the aircraft carrier, followed by the next several missions against the Angels, and between those missions they talked about embarrassing moments at school.

Excusing themselves, Tsutomo and Natsumi left the table, went to the dance floor and danced together to a slow song, before the Children likewise stood up and followed them, and the bridge crew trio were off to try their luck with the UFO Catcher; meanwhile Trudy and Paul decided to play pool, and Fuyutsuki wished them luck as they ambled to the table with their bottles of Kirin.

Now that they were the only ones left, Misato noted that Ritsuko was quiet for most of the time, apparently brooding as she drank and smoked. "What's on your mind?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ritsuko said, flustered. "N… Nothing, I'm enjoying the atmosphere."

Misato nodded. "Ah."

Ritsuko tapped the cigarette on the ashtray. "But I remember something… Have you remembered about us talking about hedgehogs?" she asked before taking hold of her glass and drank.

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Hedgehogs?"

"Yes, of course," Misato answered. "Why?"

Ritsuko tabled her glass, pulled a drag off her stick of Mild Seven and blew a stream of smoke, before she went on. "It used to be that we were so concerned about Shinji's behavior, that like a hedgehog trying to give warmth to others, yet in the process hurting with quills, he's afraid then, of hurting others." She then produced a small smile and added, "But now, he's a changed man, and that's what I'm happy about. "

"So what do you think about his future?" Misato asked.

"Personally," Ritsuko answered, "I think he'll be a better man than his father, not wanting to repeat the same mistakes… and I also think that he'll be getting himself a box of disposable razors."

Misato blinked. "For what? Don't ask me he could—"

The scientist shook her head. "Nope, he will shave off any trace of stubble on his chin at the first sign because I feel he doesn't want to be that chip off the old block."

"Well," Fuyutsuki interjected, as he popped wasabi-coated peanuts into his mouth, "he's really his mother's son, that's why he has an affinity for Rei, because, as you two have said before, she carries the positive characteristics that were also present in his mother."

"And which, of course, makes her his sister," Ritsuko added.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "That's right… Wait a minute."

Both women blinked. "What is it, sir?" they asked in unison.

"If you're wondering where the Commander is, right now he's spending his time alone at his office," the elderly man disclosed.

"Even now?" Ritsuko snorted and shook her head. "What the hell he is, Ebenezer Scrooge?" she whispered aloud to Misato, sourly making a comparative reference to the brooding, money-obsessed Charles Dickens character.

"I think he still has his ghosts to exorcise," Misato quipped before they burst into laughter, yet just as she was about to pick up her drink, someone tapped onto her shoulder. She turned around to find Makoto standing right before her, the younger officer adjusting his glasses before he smiled.

Misato blinked twice, quite surprised. "What?"

Makoto sighed and offered his hand. "Can I have this dance with you?" he requested.

* * *

Seeing that the Children once again took the floor, DJ Les smiled and he put on _Flightless Bird, American Mouth, _before the lights were dimmed and a hush swept over the patrons.

"Oh, I know that," Asuka said, recognizing the song, as her arms were around Shinji. "It's from the movie." She then smiled.

Shinji blinked. "What movie?"

"_Twilight,_ you goof."

The boy chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, hehe…"

But Asuka thought about changing the subject, perhaps about the Evas. "I haven't seen you pilot Unit One," she said.

"Except for my practice with Kaworu in the gunnery room, and that was a few days ago," Shinji answered, remembering the afternoon where he and the Fifth Children were tested, "I haven't done so in combat, ever since Ayanami blew up Unit Zero."

"Can't wait," Asuka said, nudging closer to the young man.

Shinji blinked. "What for? Another battle with an Angel?"

"No… I really wanted quality time with you," she admitted. "Only us alone, so why not later, after all this?"

"Where do you think we should be going?" Shinji asked worriedly. "Misato might get angry if we run off to someplace."

Asuka frowned. "Why not ask for permission? After all, we should be having our turn, just like what Misato and Kaji did before."

"Oh, I see… Anyway, where do you want us to go?"

"To the pool."

Shinji had a double-take. "Why? I can't swim, and we could get ourselves in trouble," he doubted.

"Trouble? It's always open, yet it's also off-hours and no one else's gonna hang around there, and besides, you need help."

"You mean you want to teach me how to swim?"

"Yeah."

"Even wearing these clothes?"

Asuka grinned at the young man in a naughty way. "No, we'll skinny-dip."

"I don't understand, but what's that?" Shinji wondered, having never heard of the word, as Asuka transliterated the word from English into Japanese.

The redhead giggled at his inability to comprehend. "You'll find out later, dummy," she riposted, but was then surprised when the girl saw Misato dancing with, of all men, the geeky-looking Makoto Hyuga, her _aide-de-camp_.

* * *

"So… Why me?" Misato asked, as Makoto led her in their steps, waltzing gently.

"You're alone, that's why," the lieutenant said, his hands embraced behind the woman's back.

"Ah, come on, tell me the truth," the colonel badgered softly. "Otherwise people would start telling strange stories about us. HQ's a small world, and you know that."

Makoto nodded. "Okay… It's like this: I've been working with you for the longest time."

Misato blinked. "And so?"

"I wanted to tell you, because I don't have the courage back then to tell everyone else for it's my terrible secret."

"You mean you do have a _crush_ on me?"

"I'm sorry, but y… Yes," Makoto finally admitted, swallowing hard but he was trying to maintain their dancing tempo without missing a beat.

"Thanks for telling me the truth," Misato said, trying not to cry.

"Uh my pleasure, but… What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"I remember someone," she whispered while blinking, reminded all too well of Kaji.

Makoto merely shrugged. "No, don't worry; I understand whom you're thinking of, and I hope he's okay with me doing this gesture for you… Fact is, it's a great honor for me."

"I'm all right with it." Misato then laid her head on the younger man's shoulder. "Just one night, and I need someone that I can confide with."

The lieutenant nodded. "Will do… _Semper fi,_" he whispered, reminding her that his faithfulness and sense of duty matched that of the American Marines' famous motto.

* * *

As Natsumi and Tsutomo were in an embrace, swaying slowly to the music, the agent said, "I'm sorry about what happened, but we couldn't avoid it." He was referring to yesterday's entanglement with the IR, which forced them to cancel their date at Odawara.

"I understand that," Natsumi said. "Shit happens all the time."

Tsutomo chuckled. "Yeah, right…. But you know what? It's strange for me that we accidentally wound up in the thick of things, right in the middle of whatever is happening."

Natsumi sighed. "I noticed that, too, Tomo, but I want to say something."

"About what?"

"To tell you the truth, when I was fourteen, back then I wasn't able to date anyone, nor anyone asking me to go out," she sadly admitted. "I couldn't even get chocolates on White Day."

Tsutomo blinked. "Why? You look great now."

'If you saw my high school pictures, well, I look very embarrassing: I had braces, I was too thin, I didn't have a nice, delicious chest… and I was a nerd, but not an _otaku_! It's no wonder that I was a target for bullies." Natsumi then made a sour face.

"There's nothing wrong being a nerd," Tsutomo said.

"But there's a difference between an ordinary nerd, and a creative nerd who have ideas that can make money," Natsumi countered. "I'm in the former, doing boring things, and those in the latter… the man who set up Facebook or the guy who either made Windows or the Mac or Napster, they're the ones with the interesting jobs."

"I don't care about that, Natsumi. You've come a long way from that old self of yours, so don't beat yourself."

Natsumi nodded. "Well, okay… But thanks for having an open ear, 'cause I wanted to get this inferiority complex off my chest."

"My pleasure," the agent said, as the audience watching them from the dim background, began to flip open and light up their Zippos and any lighters they held, slowly creating a startlingly beautiful and magical backdrop, a constellation of tiny yellow flames.

"Oh, by the way," Natsumi said. "Where do you want us to go after this?"

Tsutomo had a double-take. "You tell me where."

"Instead, why don't we have a nightcap of some hot coffee at my pad?" she finally suggested before beaming in a naughty way.

* * *

At that same moment, DJ Les now carefully switched over to _Magic Works_, a slow song from one of the _Harry Potter_ movies: _"This one's going out to all the lovers out there. Hold each other tight, and keep each other warm…"_

Now the whole world had their eyes on Rei and Kaworu, dancing slowly in the spotlight, savoring this moment while being surrounded by a candlelight constellation made out of Zippo flames.

_And dance your final dance  
This is your final chance  
To hold the one you love  
You know you've waited long enough…_

_So… Believe that magic works  
Don't be afraid  
Of bein' hurt  
Don't let this magic die  
The answer's there  
Oh, just look in her eyes…_

His heart moved greatly, Kaworu then stared into Rei's soft eyes and figured that somehow fate had played a strange yet beautiful trick on them; they weren't supposed to be together like this, for they belonged to rival lilim, akin to Romeo and Juliet, fated to be pawns in their struggle to achieve Instrumentality.

Yet this was their quiet rebellion, a daring defiance of their masters' directives.

_And make  
Your final move  
Mmm, don't be scared  
She wants you to  
It's hard  
You must be brave  
Don't let this moment slip the way…_

Rei snuggled closer to Kaworu's shoulder, as if she didn't want to let go. Kaworu then smiled and he wondered where Shinji and Asuka were dancing. Ah, he found them just a meter away, in their own intimate world, but without a word Shinji stared back at his direction and then held up an a-OK sign, telling them that everything was perfect as Asuka lazily rest her head upon the boy's shoulder.

_Congratulations, _Kaworu saluted them in his thoughts, softly smiling, and then he guessed as to what Misato and the others were doing. Perhaps they were also watching them, awestruck and maybe heart-struck, remembering love unrequited, and he grinned when he saw Misato dancing with Makoto among the other couples. _Love is blind,_ he told himself.

_Believe that magic works  
Don't be afraid  
Afraid of bein' hurt  
No, don't let this magic die  
Ooh, the answer's there  
Yeah, just look in her eyes…_

"I do not want to lose you," Rei whispered into his ear.

"I will not," Kaworu solemnly replied. "We'll always try to keep ourselves together, I promise."

The First Children sighed. "Thank you."

_And don't believe that magic can die  
No, no, no, this magic can't die…_

Both Children paused, and then Kaworu said, "Merry Christmas, Rei."

Rei nodded. "Merry Christmas to you, too, Nagisa," she answered, her cerise eyes blinking softly.

They took a breath to gain courage, before Kaworu leaned down to kiss Rei slowly on the lips. As they did, both savoring this intimate moment among the other lilim, the Fifth Children thought of the NERV motto taken from a famous Browning poem: _"God is in his heaven; all's right with the world."_

Indeed, even for this one night, with the forewarning and the danger of the future held at bay, everything was all right.

_So dance, your final dance…  
'Cause this is, your final chance…_

**

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:** I delivered… and I SCORED! (Laughter) Okay, I did this one in a space of less than three days, fueled by my own caffeine-and-oatmeal-powered imagination (don't worry, I really eat a very balanced diet), with the entire plot, dialogue, scenery and situation locked in, then stitched and assembled in my mind, before my fingers do all the walking.

To be honest, this chapter was conceived several months ago while in planning for this season, and even as everything else tried to overwhelm me, I fought to keep the storyline intact, up to the dénouement, refreshed from time to time by new ideas.

All right, then, I don't know if this was the best chapter I came up with, but I really wanted to capture the moment, that one magnificent part of the story, render a world in words and emotions, with characters pulsing with life, heart and mind.

And this is one of those moments. To my readers worldwide, I always thank you for inspiring me to move forward with another written page, and keeping my imagination ablaze.

Next Chapter: Trysts (working title, guys, so SERVICE! SERVICE!)


	35. Trysts

_**Caution:**__ Befitting the rating of this fic, there's one serving of 80-proof vodka with a twist of serious lime ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you._

* * *

Once the bartender announced that it was time to close down the O-Club, and at the same time the music died down, everyone began to get off their seats, pick up their belongings and hunker towards the door. Already, Fuyutsuki went ahead thirty minutes ago, followed by Tsutomo and Natsumi, and Ritsuko, Maya and Shigeru had left an hour earlier, saying that they needed to get up early for work.

As they walked out of the tavern, Misato, being supported by Makoto by having her arm draped over his back and shoulders, hiccupped and said, "Where we're going?"

"You need some rest," Makoto replied, the woman's laptop bag hanging on his shoulder and neck.

Shinji, walking alongside her, asked, "Can we… Uh, go elsewhere?"

Misato blinked. "What? Where you going with?"

"I'm with him," Asuka said. "We just need a bit more time between each other."

The woman nodded. "Ah… Sure, no problem."

Both Children smiled. "Thanks," Shinji said.

"But be careful, okay? Permission granted, you two," Misato added before Shinji faced Kaworu.

"What about the both of you?" Shinji asked.

"Oh," Kaworu said, his hand holding Rei's. "I have to pick something up, bring her home, then come back here."

Wordlessly Rei nodded in response.

"One word before you lovebirds leave," Misato harrumphed.

The Children blinked, halting in mid-step. "What?" they all asked.

"Take care of yourselves, and then I think tomorrow, Shinji-"

"Yeah?" the young man said as they came inside the Headquarters building, a small lobby built into the side, and just ahead was a bank of elevators.

"I'll have a compatibility test arranged for you to get back to Unit One," Misato said. "I'm hoping that by now she's all right and should be able to recognize you."

Shinji nodded. "Okay."

"As for you, Asuka," Misato added. "You'll have to do some combat simulator tests in Unit Two to be refreshed, get up to date and bring you back in line."

"Will do," Asuka agreed. Instinctively she twitched her pointer finger, as if itching to pull the trigger once more.

The woman, still inebriated, shook her head and took in a deep breath in an attempt to relieve herself some of the nausea. "I'm hoping that, by the time I wake up," Misato said. "Section Two might have a breakthrough."

Makoto nodded. "But still, he's out there somewhere."

"Yeah," Misato agreed, and she turned her attention to Shinji and Kaworu. "You Children, I grant your leave. Go and be careful, and then come back in one piece for work, okay?"

"Yes," Rei said, holding onto Kaworu's hand even firmer.

"No problem," Asuka added, before she yanked Shinji's hand and they ran off ahead of them. "See you later!"

Once the Children split up in pairs, with Rei and Kaworu taking an elevator up to the BOQ, while Shinji and Asuka took another elevator down to the recreation area, Misato said to Makoto, "More or less, I think I did my best as their guardian."

"Yeah, but watch your step," Makoto reminded her.

"Say," Misato whispered to Makoto, the woman holding her head as she leaned on a nearby wall. "Why don't we have some coffee at Lawson's in the lobby before we hit the sack?"

Taken aback, Makoto blinked this time, glasses almost coming off his face but managed to push them back with his fingers. "Are you serious?" he asked, thinking she wanted him on bed.

Misato shook her head. "No… No, we need to talk, that's all. I need an outlet… and a couple of headache tablets."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 35:TRYSTS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/28/2011 10:15 a6/p6 / 6/28/2011 10:15 a6/p6

* * *

Several hundred meters away, Natsumi's home was located on the Geofront's hillside, built as one of the executive cottages that several years ago, previously housed the chief engineer who oversaw the construction of the NERV complex.

Inside, Natsumi had the interior decorated in beige and brown tones, and she set in place pieces of Ikea furniture around the living room. Reproductions of two ancient calligraphy scrolls were hung on each side of the fireplace, whose fire from the burning natural gas coming out of the simulated ceramic piles of logs crackled and hissed.

At this moment, instead of drinking coffee as planned, Natsumi and Tsutomo were kissing torridly, their hands gliding over their bodies, trying to strip whatever clothing they had on, before they went onto the bed. Tsutomo kept onto his ministrations, kissing the woman all over, enjoying the scent of her body.

He then mounted himself right on top of the woman, and in sweat began to join in closer in the wetness; Natsumi's pleasured moans filled the bedroom until the moment of climax.

Only then Tsutomo rolled away from her unclothed form and they sighed in unison.

They waited for several minutes, taking their time to rest; breathing heavily as if they've ran through the finish line on a marathon.

"That was hard," Natsumi said, breaking the silence.

Tsutomo blinked. "What?"

Without a word, the woman pointed out that the sheet now had a small bloodstain, meaning to say that she finally lost her virginity.

"You're the _first ever_," Natsumi admitted. "I've studied a bit of gynecology on the side, knew the precautions and the contraceptives since high school; watched some little… er… soft porn on the side, tried masturbating… But, damn… this… _this hurts!_"

"It really does hurt," Tsutomo said as she stroked his chest.

"Then that makes you a pro. When's the first time you lost your cherry?"

The agent blinked, and he blushed; Tsutomo had, at last count, flings with at least twelve women in his lifetime, and this woman was the thirteenth. "Me?"

Natsumi laughed. "Yeah, but why hide it?"

"Because it's a bit embarrassing to talk about it—"

"With a woman, right?"

"Yeah."

"Of course in a bathhouse you'll talk with the rest of the boys about it."

Tsutomo nodded. "You're right."

Natsumi sighed and said, "Okay, I'm all ears. Tell me, spill the beans... We're on our own."

"Okay… Back when I was eighteen… If I could remember right," Tsutomo recalled. "We did a quickie right inside the toilet stall on the fourth floor."

Natsumi snorted. "Some memory you got."

"Yeah," he agreed. "But we lasted for only four months before calling it quits."

"What's her name?"

"Yumiko. Tallest in my class. A hottie with all the works… Long hair, cute face, big chest…"

"And dumb?"

"I'm afraid so. She flunked third year twice in a row."

"Why did you leave her?"

Tsutomo made a face. "She was seeing someone else," he said, leaving out the fact that Yumiko was moonlighting as a streetwalker, while wearing a school uniform.

"That's no surprise."

"Yeah, and from there I changed my mind, by not trying to hitch with a girl straight out of _Sabra_," he said, referring to a popular girlie magazine. "Unless-"

Natsumi crawled over Tsutomo's chest, stared right up into his face and smiled. "Forget it. You've got me now, and I have everything you want."

Tsutomo nodded. "Thank you," he whispered.

"My pleasure," she replied, before they kissed slowly.

* * *

Far away, deep in the bowels of NERV HQ, where the swimming pool was located, Shinji and Asuka stood right before the pool filled with warm water. Tonight they had the whole place all for both of them, and at this early hour with no one guarding the premises.

"Why don't we change—" Shinji said as he was about to suggest about changing to swimwear, but was cut off when Asuka quickly strip off her clothes and tossed them aside on the floor, leaving only her underwear on.

"This is _skinny-dipping_," Asuka replied, and she jumped into the water with a loud splash.

Shinji was speechless, wondering if his nose could leak with blood or not.

"Come on," Asuka cajoled as she bobbed on the water. "I have to teach you, but take off those clothes first!"

"Um… Okay," the young man agreed as he took off everything but his boxers. Once that was done, he made a step forward, and dipped his right foot into the water. It was just right; warm, not freezing.

"How deep is it?" Shinji asked.

Asuka laughed. "Just get in, dummy. It's just a meter deep for starters, so don't worry."

The young man slowly crouched down, right foot first, and then propped himself to slid carefully into the water until he was chest-deep; it was warm, all right, but he wasn't sure about what Asuka might teach him.

"Say, when's the last time you tried to swim?" Asuka questioned, her red hair now wet after dunking herself in the drink.

Shinji sighed as the water splashed around him. "Second grade, I guess… But I never got to follow it up."

"Why?"

The young man sighed and said, "I nearly drowned… One of my classmates, a bully really, took me by the hairs and shoved me down underwater. I don't how long, but I blacked out before the teachers cut it out and then they sent me home."

Asuka blinked. "Oh."

"That's why from there I had a hard time trying to swim… That's why I'm a bit afraid of going to the deep end."

The redhead nodded. "I see. C'mon, I'll teach you to how to hold your breath underwater."

"Okay," Shinji agreed. "How?"

"Simple. You take a deep breath, then dunk yourself down and count to ten with your fingers. If you can do that, then we go by twenty seconds, then thirty, until you might be able to hold it in a minute. Through all that, however, you'll have to blow bubbles and try to open your eyes."

Shinji smiled. "Sounds good."

Asuka nodded. "Let's get started, then. Take a deep breath."

The young man followed suit by inhaling as hard as he can, his mouth shut tight.

"Good," Asuka approved, "and then… Now."

In unison they went under, crouching down and close to the bottom, but Shinji, at first, shut his eyes upon sinking, and then because he'd been in LCL many times he opened his eyes to see for himself; it looked blurry as he stared at Asuka, who gestured at him to count down from ten with their fingers. As he watched her count, he willed himself to hold his breath as long in those ten seconds, blowing bubbles occasionally, until Asuka gestured to him again to rise and catch some air.

Upon breaking through the surface, both Children gasped for air, and Asuka said, "How do you feel?"

"I'm getting started," Shinji answered.

Asuka grinned. "Good, we're going for twenty," she said, before taking another deep breath, and went under once more until after twenty seconds; and repeated the same routine, adding more ten seconds until Shinji was able to muster himself to hold down for a minute and thirty seconds.

This time Shinji was breathing in deeply, gasping loudly after they came to the surface. "How long?"

"A minute and forty," Asuka said cheerfully between breaths. "You're doing great."

Shinji looked glad; he felt proud of himself getting that far. "Thanks!" he exclaimed.

"Okay, we'll move on to floating," she said, but then pointed out to a spot two meters away from them, where there was a marker denoting one-and-a-half meters of water.

* * *

Just when they were about to climb up the stairs, right up to Rei's home, Kaworu gestured to the girl to pause, and he said, "I just want to teach you something."

"What is it?" Rei asked as the young man let the backpack drop to his left hand. He'd been carrying it ever since they came from the O-Club and passed by his quarters to pick it up. She wondered at first what was inside, but decided that it must be unimportant, probably containing his toiletries or spare clothes, just as she did once when she had to do physical education with the rest of the class.

Kaworu pointed at a small warehouse just besides the apartment building, with its sliding door ajar. "Come with me," he intoned.

They walked in until they were standing in the middle of the empty space, surrounded by corrugated boxes of what appeared to be supplies for the demolition crew; the only light present was a pair of white LED bulbs right above their heads.

Facing Rei, Kaworu said, "Have you discovered your AT Field? Or even tried to use it?"

The First Children shook her head. "No."

"But you have potential."

For a moment Rei thought of this, before she said, "How?"

Kaworu sighed. "Limitation is only in the mind," he said. "As you're made from Lilith and you're also her vessel, you can do _almost everything_ with the AT Field, which is why I must show you the way to use the Field to your advantage."

Rei nodded… and smiled softly. "Show me, then."

"Okay," Kaworu said. "See those cans there?" The young man pointed at a pair of empty and upright coffee cans near the wall, several meters away from where they were standing. "Now, the first thing you do is to close your eyes and try to concentrate."

He then closed his eyes and breathed deeply, giving himself a few moments to bring up his AT Field to strength, but not too powerful enough that he could produce a blip detectable by NERV's sensitive array of hidden energy sensors planted around Hakone.

Kaworu now opened his eyes and focused at one of the cans. "Try to focus on the object you want to move, and then picture it coming to you."

The can began to shake slightly, and then in an act that would be construed as a form of magic, the can slowly rose off the floor, before flying towards Kaworu in mid-air until he could reach out and grasp it in his right hand. He then turned to Rei, smiled and said, "That's what I learned before I came here."

For a moment Rei looked at her palms, and wondered if she could do it.

"Now, you try," Kaworu added as he set the can on the floor besides his feet. "Just concentrate carefully. Be subtle."

Rei closed her eyes slowly, before, in imitation of Kaworu, took a deep breath, letting all of herself concentrate into the very core of her heart, and then in her mind's eye saw a ring of light issue away from her, like a ripple in a calm pond. This light lit the darkness before her, revealing the objects right in front, much in the same way a sonar wave hit an underwater obstacle, before the can she sought to manipulate glinted brightly.

Her eyelids fluttered, energies now concentrated on the can, and as if she picked it up, the can levitated, powered by her will, before she formed her hands into a bowl and, by a blink of an eye, the can dropped in.

Now, blinking repeatedly, Rei couldn't believe it; she was astonished by what she was able to do. She turned to Kaworu, holding the can in her hand, and said, "I… I did it."

What words of triumph they were, and this time Kaworu grinned. "I told you can."

Rei smiled in return, finally discovering her newfound potential. "What else I could do?"

"Generate a defensive AT Field," he answered.

* * *

At this hour in the HQ lobby, the only ones up around besides Misato and Makoto , as they held their tall cups of black coffee while sitting on the stools, were the two storekeepers running the Lawson's joint; and just a few meters away, the security troopers were hanging around the information desk, talking to the lone night staffer stationed there.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Makoto asked. "You okay this time?"

Misato paused for a moment to punch out the aspirin from the blister pack and popped it into her mouth, before she took a sip of the brew to wash it down and swallowed.

"Yeah," she answered. "I'm feeling bothered about something… I mean, it seems that everything's coming together, but what I don't know is… Is it really going to happen, like what those old men are up to?"

"We've already seen some of the evidence, but like you, I can't guess when they'll strike," Makoto replied. "But they're ready, if not making preparations to make it easier to make their wishes come true."

Misato groaned as she paused to ponder, letting the information in her mind swirl around, trying to recall everything she knew, and then attempt to join the pieces together in an imaginary jigsaw puzzle.

_A lot of coincidences,_ she thought, her eyes narrowing. _All of it goes back to SEELE and the Commander... But, hell, even if we manage to stop Commander Ikari, SEELE would still put their plan in motion, and with so much they could throw at us, except the Evas are the only ones standing in their way._

_Yeah, whoever they are, and if we could find __this other mole and catch him… That mole might have any knowledge of the day they'll attack; there's no way he'll do all of this on his own without any coordination with SEELE. It has to be perfectly timed, and why not?_

Misato shook her head. _What about Kaworu? He's also an agent, but in the end he's as much as a tool for this Lorenz, in the same way Rei was made as a servant for Commander Ikari, and he's trying to break away from their control._

_All because of love. Yeah…_

Suddenly her eyes flew open, and at the same time her hangover was dissipated.

_Wait a second… If that mole could be talking with SEELE, then has Kaworu made any contact with these fogies? Is it still possible? If he needed to show some loyalty to these bastards, he has to talk, but where? There's no way in this place for him to simply bring out his phone and dial their number__, he'll be compromised in no time. It has to be somewhere… _

Misato recalled that several times since he arrived, Kaworu went outside, ostensibly to catch some fresh air, or to visit Rei, or to meditate.

_That does it, _Misato finally told herself, and so without warning she grabbed Makoto by the wrist and then yanked as she abruptly moved.

"What that hell…?" Makoto stammered, blinking. "Where are we going?"

"I got it!" Misato exclaimed. "Let's ask the info desk, he might have something about Nagisa's movements."

The next thing she was standing before the desk staffer, who looked surprised at seeing Misato with a determined face, staring back at him as she flashed her ID card.

"Wha… What can I do for you, Colonel?" he asked, reading off her ID card.

"Corporal, do you have any records of Kaworu Nagisa's times of entry and exit in your logs?" Misato demanded as she put away the card.

Going to his workstation and on the computer, the staffer quickly typed in Kaworu's full name and hit the Enter key to search all records concerning him. Instantly the query program spat out a list onscreen, which showed Kaworu indeed went outside, and the most telling was his unusual excursion in the dead of early morning, which was a few days ago, the day when Unit-01 went haywire on Rei.

Misato and Makoto stared at each other, and then she said, "I think now is his opportunity to make contact again."

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked as his boss pulled him away from the counter, and from earshot.

"Listen to me," Misato whispered into his ear. "To make himself more credible to his masters, Kaworu has to come out, try to link up and report back with whatever he'd seen here."

Makoto blinked. "Is he about to turn against us?"

Misato shook her head. "We'll never know, even though he swears that he's no longer in their control, but the thing is, he must show some loyalty, to assure them that their plans, whatever the hell they are, are being acted on."

"And where we find him?"

The woman upraised her finger. "There's one more thing," she said, going back to the desk staffer, and commanded, "I need a line to Director Hamamoto."

The clerk gave her the phone and Misato dialed the old man's number. After several rings Hamamoto picked it up and said, "Hello?"

"Katsuragi here, sir," Misato replied.

"Yeah, what's up, Colonel?" Hamamoto sounded surprised. "We're still trying to figure out where this fucking mole is cooped up in."

"A mole could do anything," Misato said. "If you have an insider, what he'll do apart from spying and cracking safes?"

"He can do some sabotage work," Hamamoto answered.

Misato nodded. "That's right, sir, and what he'll hit should he has the tools to do so?"

Hamamoto let off a groan, as if a sordid idea finally hit him hard. "The worst he'll try to do to bring us down are our vital installations: communication lines, power, water, air… anything mission-critical that can be destroyed with well-placed explosives, even with some fertilizer, diesel fuel, and an improvised detonator and timer."

"Are you going to act on it?" Misato asked.

"Damn right we have to!" Hamamoto exclaimed, and Misato could hear what seemed to be some rustling in the background, the old man presumably getting his coat and holster on. "Looks like we could do something constructive this time, Colonel."

Misato grinned.

"As soon as you go on your way," Hamamoto said, "I'd better start asking the boys to go check every installation and generation plant we have here with each team with a sniffer dog and anything to find and defuse a bomb or something. That way, I think we could get the sonofabitch easy by smoking him out of his hidey-hole once he finds out we fuck up his plan to celebrate New Year with plastic explosives."

"Good idea, sir," Misato said, amused by the man's colorful language.

"Once this is over, Colonel," Hamamoto said, "I'll take you and any buddies you have to any dive you want at Odawara, even if I have to blow my month's salary on a dozen fish heads. All drinks are on me."

Misato chuckled. "Thank you sir."

"My pleasure. At least you finally made me break out of this damned rut, so I'll see you later… Hopefully with the sonofabitch dangling from the scaffold like freshly-caught blue marlin. Thank you, Colonel," Hamamoto said before he put down the phone, and then Misato turned to Makoto.

"Well?" the bespectacled junior officer asked.

"He's up and running, so I think it's time for us to watch what Kaworu could do," Misato said as they walked towards the direction of the parking lot. Meanwhile the guards who were lounging around suddenly heard their handheld radios crackling, with Hamamoto issuing prompt orders.

* * *

Surprisingly, no more than an hour of swimming basics did Shinji now dared himself to submerge for half a minute, as Asuka watched him underwater. She wondered what spurred him to break away his fears and to become this confident, and to learn so much. Her presence, perhaps?

Asuka remembered how from time to time she would badger Shinji, sometimes in an offensive manner, to demean him and to show that she was better, but as well as to get his game face on. But since the attempt on her life it seemed that Shinji was reasserting the way how he was trying to cope with the harsh reality of the world around him.

She could never forget the look on his face, when he finally broke through and picked up the gun to wade into the fight with both fists clenched.

That was amazing, and why not?

He loved her this time, and no longer did they have to furtively and reluctantly trying to settle their differences, no longer did they were in conflict, but somewhere they attuned themselves to the same wavelength.

It was their respective and sordid past lives that finally allowed them to transcend their initial prejudices… and Shinji's newfound courage now gave Asuka a renewed measure of making peace with the past, and to look to the future with hope in her heart.

Well, she was no longer alone; they were for each other, for even hedgehogs can mate.

And once they went back to the surface, Shinji asked, "How many seconds?"

"Over a minute," Asuka answered between her breaths, smiling despite herself as she kicked her feet underwater to stay afloat. "I'm still surprised."

Shinji grinned, his head bobbing above the surface, the water eddying around him. "I'm just following your lead."

"Okay, one last," Asuka dared, before she took a deep breath, dived back in, and Shinji followed suit by doing the same procedure.

Underwater once more, Shinji kept himself still, letting a few bubbles float away from the corner of his mouth as Asuka swam towards him. For a few seconds they stared at each other's eyes, before their lips touched and then locked down in a kiss, sharing some of their breath, the outside world ignored in their bliss.

As they kissed, his hands glided over her shoulders, holding Asuka gently as her palms held on to his waist. They kept on, counting seconds in their minds, but they wanted to let the moment last longer… yet somehow each second seemed to be an hour, but no, almost an eternity.

Shinji's feelings were mixed, an intoxicating cocktail of ecstasy, joy, gladness, redemption, and triumph, this blissful moment a culmination of a long life of loneliness, followed by interaction with people over time; they all shaped him into the man he was now, for better or for worse. He could now feel the beating of his heart in the ears, like a big taiko drum being pounded enthusiastically, his soul celebrating a personal achievement, a _matsuri no ai_… a festival of love held in the sun-dappled avenue of his mind. He could imagine the loud chanting in his mind's ears, a dim memory of the past, when as a young boy on the sidelines with his uncle he watched the parade pass by, the wooden shrine being held up and down on shoulders by hachimaki-wearing men in colorful yukatas: _WA-SHO! WA-SHO! WA-SHO! WA-SHO!_

He felt hard at the same time, feeling eager and inflamed, and suddenly he couldn't wait any longer, so Shinji looked into Asuka's eyes once more, gestured to her to surface back, and once they broke through the water, breathing in the air in gasps, Shinji was hungry.

As if like telepathy, Asuka knew what her lover wanted, and like there was no tomorrow, they swam towards the edge of the pool, climbed out of the water, and scurried towards a row of chaise lounges. Asuka laid herself down on one of them, her face glistening with dripping water drops, framed with a smile, cheeks blushing, as Shinji was now on all fours over her body.

They paused for a moment, eyes locked to one another as they breathed in shallow huffs, wondering who should make the first move; Asuka expecting Shinji to go first because he was the man of the moment, but Shinji thought Asuka should be first because he thought she had more experience, but then...

"What are you waiting for?" Asuka finally questioned, breaking the impasse.

Shinji chuckled. "Why not?" he said.

"To hell with the world," she answered, before Shinji kissed her deep, as the girl struggled to unfasten her bra with a free hand…

* * *

Back at the warehouse, Kaworu now stood just a few meters away from Rei, having instructed her to pick up a stone. He then said, "Just throw the rock at me."

Rei blinked in hesitation.

"Harder, as though you threw the Spear just like before."

"But…"

Kaworu grinned. "Don't worry about me, I can take it even if you hit me on the head."

Without a word, Rei nodded. She first concentrated at her target without hesitation, and she readied the stone, clenched in her hand, and flung it hard at Kaworu like a Hanshin Tigers fastball. Instantly the stone, just it was about to strike into Kaworu's midsection, was pulverized into dust when his defensive AT Field caught it, a bluish hexagonal ripple forming away from the moment of impact.

"This is how you defend yourself," Kaworu said, as he walked towards Rei. "Your mind must anticipate any possible danger, which then the AT Field you generate would create a perimeter where you could then sense an incoming, harmful object that could possibly hurt you."

"Which means I must imagine this perimeter with my own mind," Rei said.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, you can create this 'magic circle'. Now, it's your turn."

Rei walked back a few yards, away from Kaworu, who then picked up another stone.

"First," Rei said, closing her eyes, "I imagine this circle."

"Yes," Kaworu replied. "Can you feel it now?"

Rei nodded in response; she could sense the energy emanating from the core of her very being, which then expanded and radiated outwards.

"Now open your eyes, but maintain your concentration," Kaworu said, and then he lobbed the stone, right into Rei's stomach where it was supposed to hit her. Her mind awaiting the stone, the AT Field she generated immediately reacted upon contact and blasted the stone out of existence, leaving a cloud of dust floating before her.

"See," Kaworu said, silently applauding Rei for doing it right the first time. "Was it hard?"

Rei shook her head, but she gave him a small smile in return. "I could get used to this."

Kaworu sighed, and kissed her on the forehead. "Come on," he said. "You still have some tea left over?"

"Yes," she replied as they mounted the stairs.

* * *

Suddenly, Shinji hesitated, prompting Asuka to frown.

"What?" she demanded. Both of them were now naked, their wet underwear tossed aside, and of course their cheeks were still flaming red.

"Uh… I… I've never done this before," he replied, sounding doubtful.

The redhead laughed out loud. "So do I, dummy! You think we're going too far? We're about to start!"

"No… Uh," Shinji stammered before he stared down to his quivering rocket ship hovering over her Black Forest in blazing autumn red. His mind was whirling with what-ifs, wondering if he could accidentally make Asuka pregnant.

Asuka sighed. "Look, if your concern is making me pregnant," she said, "I don't care if I become a mother, I don't care if I'll have to go through childbirth... I'll live with that, too, even if Misato gets mad at us for shagging should she catches us. I'll take the responsibility, and I promise you that I'll not be like Mama."

"I've made up my mind now," Shinji answered. "I think there's no point of return for me."

"You mean _us_."

"Yeah. I have to be a man. I have to take responsibility, too."

Now Asuka smiled. "Let's not make it quick," she said softly. "First of all, be slow… Kiss me slowly on the neck, then you work your way down. Don't enter unless I say so."

Shinji managed a hard swallow, steeling himself to go forth.

"Okay," he whispered, before his lips touched the skin of her neck.

* * *

The lab was always Ritsuko's second home, which was why she stashed in some of her clothes and personal necessities in closets, and by the time they got inside, Maya went ahead and pulled out a foldable cot from the closet and set it up, before tossing in a blanket and a pillow on top; her boss was used to work so late that she had to spend the rest of the night in the lab, and she did so in a Spartan manner.

As Ritsuko prepared her mug of coffee for the two of them, Maya said, "I'll leave later."

"Why?" the older woman asked.

"I just want to hang around a little longer," Maya answered as she sat down on an empty chair. "There's nothing waiting for me by the time I get there."

"Ah, I see."

For a while there was silence between the two once the women took their mugs of coffee and sipped, as they still felt the slight hangover from drinking a few bottles of beer and five-percenter alco-pop.

"Do you wish to talk about something?" Ritsuko offered.

"Uh… You first, but why?" Maya wondered aloud.

Ritsuko chuckled. "It's been so long that we're so busy that we haven't got a chance to talk about ourselves," she said.

"Ah," Maya said, smiling. "I guess I'll start with myself."

The lady doctor nodded. "Okay."

"When I was in high school," Maya recalled, before she took a sip, "I didn't think much of romance, and back then I minded my own business. I was then okay with having no date, as I didn't want to be distracted from my studies."

"I see."

"My parents put a lot of pressure on me to finish studying, as I was the only child, and you should know that."

"You're just like me," Ritsuko said in agreement as she sat down on the cot. "My mother had a lot of expectations."

Maya sighed. "But inside… well, I was kind of being left out in my class. I was always first, but the other girls had a better time… like they're living normal lives, and they worried a little compared to me."

"So, what do you really want?" the older woman asked.

"I just wished they let a little more slack for me," Maya said, "I wished I had a date, learn a few more things other than math and chemical equations, understand the world around me, and you know, make the best of my youth."

"That explains why you, now out of college, have this Hello Kitty fixation," Ritsuko said before she laughed, knowing that Maya had that girly habit of affixing stickers to some of her workstation furniture, and a big themed cushion atop her chair.

"Yeah," Maya agreed, tittering. "I'm trying to make up for what I lost."

"Now, do you still wonder about my relationship with Kaji?"

Maya blinked. "Him?"

"Yeah, you think there's something going on between him and me… Well, he did it to provoke Misato to bring her closer to him by making her jealous."

"Ah, that's why he's playful, like hugging you, right?"

"That's correct," Ritsuko confirmed. "But, to be honest, I'm really a friend to them as far as I'm concerned; I'm just at the sidelines back then, when they were beyond first base."

"So, you're lonely."

Ritsuko sighed. "Yeah, and so this leaves me wondering about the future. I doubt about having love at this age… that funny, fickle, hurtful, unpredictable word." She then took a deep sip, wanting to get the caffeine hit her system hard, and said, "Maya…"

Maya blinked. "Yes?"

"I need you."

The younger junior officer blushed. "Why?"

"You're the only one left who I can trust… after all the pain and suffering and jealousy and…" Ritsuko groaned and shook her head. "…and betrayal."

Maya said nothing, except she drank her boss' words, the young woman's heart throbbing as Ritsuko turned to look into her eyes, took her hand and grasped it gently.

"Maya, if ever the world collapses around us," she said, "if ever there's nowhere to go once the typhoon, an earthquake and a tsunami hit us at the same time, at least you manage to stick along with me, through thick and thin, and for that… I thank you."

From that point, the two women had nothing else to say, except Ritsuko leaned forward and kissed Maya on the cheek, before hugging her.

* * *

While Rei prepared some tea in the kitchen, Kaworu parted the curtains and slid open the balcony doors, allowing the early morning breeze and some moonlight to filter in. Pleased, he then sat down on the edge of the girl's bed and gazed at the scene outside; beyond the ruins lay the artificial lagoon whose waters were sparkled by the rays of the moon. He could also espy the silhouette of the mountain range towering above the lake, and far off, there was the faint haze of urban lighting.

Kaworu's mind then ranged back to the tavern, and immediately he felt that intoxicating high of love, of being with Rei as they danced. It was that same feeling that compelled men and women to write stories and poems in epic volumes, to paint, to sing and dance, all that to celebrate romanticism to banish, even if only for a while, the ugliness of human strife, violence, and debasement.

Now something struck Kaworu's mind: no longer did he read or watched fiction about people in love, but rather he and Rei experienced it first-hand, the first time on the same wavelength.

He then turned around to see Rei waiting for him, a teacup in each hand. Wordlessly he accepted one, before taking a careful sip as the blue-haired girl sat besides him.

"I thought it so strange that we were fated to meet in this way," Kaworu said.

"Yes," Rei replied.

"Well," he said, "there's something else I noticed about Shinji's mother, especially her past as I looked into your mind and saw all that."

"Now that I have understood, the Commander has a reason to do everything to get her back."

"Because he thought she was the only woman who changed him completely. He really fell for her, for to him she was his salvation, a way for him to break from the past."

Rei nodded, and then made a sip from her own cup.

"Yet, in consequence, by willing herself to Eva to escape Chairman Lorenz's wrath, I think Commander Ikari was completely consumed by that loss, which explains why he conceived of this undertaking to retrieve her at any cost."

"Therefore I was made in her image," Rei said. "I was to give the Commander a reminder of his life's goal."

"That explains why at first he gave you preferential treatment as if you were his daughter," Kaworu said.

"That is true," Rei agreed as she took his hand. "But at the price of my brother's happiness."

"Yet look at the brighter side, especially now," Kaworu said. "Shinji found his happiness by discovering that he had much in common with Asuka, and shared everything they knew about themselves. So, why he has to waste time worrying about his father, who still regards him as a cog in a machine even up to this point, when he now has Asuka as the focus of his newfound happiness?"

Rei gave him a soft smile. "It is best that we let them alone, let him experience his joy with Asuka," she said. "Right here and now, I am glad I am with you."

"For having someone to talk with?" Kaworu asked.

"More than that."

"I know."

This time the couple afforded themselves to laugh softly, before Rei paused to place her hand to touch Kaworu's cheek and said, "I want to take you."

"Where?" he asked, blinking in wonderment.

"Touch me now."

"You mean…" he trailed off as he watched her crawl to the middle of the bed and laid down, but immediately Kaworu finally understood what Rei was asking him to do. So he went over to her and without anything else to say he kissed her slowly.

They then sat upright, and Rei, acting on ancient instinct, carefully took off her shirt before she unbuttoned Kaworu's shirt and tossed both garments away. They paused for a moment, each wondering what to do next.

Kaworu decided that it was his turn, and began to kiss Rei again as his hands reached out and unfastened her bra. She then unbuckled and unzipped her jeans, pulled them down and cast them away onto the floor.

Now only one piece of undergarment remained on her body, and the Fifth Children managed a hard swallow, but instantly he banished his doubts by taking off his pants. He then said, "Don't worry, Rei. I think we can do this by instinct, but... I want to do this slowly."

"I agree," she said, before her fingers tugged at the hem of her panties and pulled them down to her knees.

This time Kaworu groaned in pleasure at the sight of this unexplored country, and thus instantly engorged. "I… This must what a honeymoon really looks like," he said.

Rei blinked. "Honeymoon?"

"Something I learned while watching TV, about a couple happily married and how they spent the night after."

"Ah," Rei said as her mind registered the word and its definition, before Kaworu took off his boxers. Now that both Children were free of their garments, he went down upon Rei's body and began the age-old instinct of copulation.

Once he pushed inward for the very first time, Rei gasped in pain but took it in stride, for she didn't care about being hurt this way, nor worry about the world or Commander Ikari, for she really wanted Kaworu for this one and only amorous time of their lives, personal self-discovery at the most intimate level.

* * *

Sated yet completely spent, Shinji and Asuka were lying on the chaise, side by side, perspiring and gasping for deep breaths after they were able to reach the portals of heaven and he unloaded himself.

Slowly Asuka looked into Shinji's eyes and she said in a soft tone, "I'm okay with this."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his arms draped around her.

The redhead sighed. "Before, I once used to dread the inevitability of motherhood, especially when I have this 'time of the month' thingy… I mean, going through a case of premenstrual syndrome."

"And…?"

"To make it clear," Asuka said, "I then didn't want to have kids, as I bitched about PMS and why I have to deal with it… it's because at that time I didn't want to remember Mama, and I don't want to relive that nightmare."

"What about now?"

Asuka chuckled. "I'll learn more from now on," she promised. "I mean, should I get pregnant, we'll have to learn the ropes and understand what it takes to be a parent."

"Perhaps… No, I mean," Shinji corrected himself, "If we ever to have children, let's not allow ourselves to repeat the mistakes of the past."

The redhead nodded. "Yeah," she agreed. "You sound profound and mature this time, you dummy."

Shinji smiled. "Thank you… By the way, what time is it?"

Asuka upraised her wrist to glance at the face of her Swatch wristwatch. "It's five minutes past two. Do you still have the card to the door?"

"Yeah, it's in my pants," Shinji answered before getting up from the chaise and began to gather up their tossed clothes on the floor. "Let's get dressed before Misato comes back loaded from some sake bar out there."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I apologize to everyone that it took me waaaay too long to bring this out. Why? Too busy, busy, busy; so busy that IRL crap nearly ate up the energy I need to think and write, along with too many distractions along the way. It's only for the last two weeks that I was able to have enough time to brainstorm and then commit the story to the pages... But in reality I had the ideas for this chapter in those long months since February, fighting not to forget the scenes that I have envisioned, now in these pages.

In other words, I'm not going to let this fic go the way of _Gospel of Malachiel._

Well… I'm looking forward to the next remaining chapters before moving on to the biggie, but before I go, any C&Cs are welcome.

_J'ai ose._


	36. The Garden of Gethsemane

Kaworu suddenly woke up, bringing himself sitting upright on the bed. His eyes squinted in the near-darkness, eyes adjusting as they sought for light. Right besides him was Rei, sleeping but under the blanket she was completely naked. He could also feel the rhythm of her breathing.

His mind quickly went back to the last time they were awake, as they made love, groping between each other in the dim light, kissing, caressing their sweaty skin, all the while they moaned. It was their first time, doing it as if they knew the mechanics for a very long time, and all the while Kaworu thought this was where all living existence began, the necessity of reproduction to ensure the survival of any species, but superseded, in his opinion, by this thing called love.

Love, he thought, and basing it from his experience with the literary and artistic works of humanity, wasn't just the mere act of copulation, mistaken as the carnal definition of love, but it really encompassed everything the lilim valued; love produced peace but also war; some lilim killed or died for love; some made profit from it; and some founded several religions with love as one of the pillars of faith.

Kaworu sighed, and then smiled.

Love wasn't about sex or something that should be followed up by marriage; love was paying respect to one's opposite, but also to one's parents, friends, and if one is so compassionate, to all people; love was meant to give meaning to life, a purpose, a reason to exist.

Briefly he looked down at Rei, still in slumber, and thought of someone else.

Through the thoughts of many whom he made psychic contact and thus accessed their pasts, Kaworu finally formed an overall view of Commander Ikari's personality: clearly he was a man driven to "rescue" his wife back into existence, and at the cost of many, and much had to be sacrificed to achieve his goal piece-by-piece.

He wondered what that man was doing at the moment in his ivory tower; perhaps he was plotting, scheming, and finding some cut-throat way to deal with the old men that made up the entity called SEELE; perhaps he brooded at his loss, or maybe he was contemplating about the future.

A thought entered Kaworu's mind, and it was quite unpleasant that he sighed and frowned: what if Commander Ikari discovered his true purpose? And should he be caught, what sort of penalty Kaworu may have to deal with?

As he was an Angel, Kaworu knew that death would be his final disposition, one way or another. He'd been sent here on a one-way trip, having been informed of what he was supposed to do: to subjugate NERV.

Except he discovered that not all of these people he encountered within NERV were deserving of condemnation; perhaps with the exception of Commander Ikari, everyone else had a reason to be here, principally for the defense of human existence as a bulwark against the Angels; of course the Evas and their functionality in combat would not be made possible without the help of many hands.

But still the old men of SEELE wanted their way to be done, to play NERV into their own hands before crushing it completely, and before that Kaworu knew that they were waiting for him at this very moment, huddled behind their holographic monoliths, proclaiming themselves as the invisible, manipulative puppeteers who held the strings to human existence.

Very well, he'll give them a nice show.

Again, Kaworu sighed as he slowly eased himself away from Rei and the bed, his feet touching the tiled floor. Tiptoeing his way across the room, Kaworu found a paper pad and a pen, before he wrote down a brief message for Rei. Satisfied, Kaworu tore off the scribbled note and left it tacked to the refrigerator door, and then quietly picked up his clothes piled on the floor besides the bed.

Kaworu dressed, putting on his underwear and then his clothes, tied up his shoes and picked up the backpack containing his communications gear. He then passed by the kitchen and washed and dried his face with a towel.

Just as he was about to step outside, however, Kaworu hesitated, and went back to Rei. There he carefully leaned close enough to kiss her on the forehead, before making a step back and gave the girl one last look before leaving.

For a moment he was uneasy; he wished he could stay longer, perhaps waking up with Rei in the morning with nothing to worry about except to make some breakfast for two and small talk, but he had no choice but to acquiesce himself to duty.

"I'll see you later," Kaworu whispered. "Don't worry about me."

But Rei responded by a mere murmur.

The Fifth Children then quietly walked away, went out and closed the door with the near-silent click of the lock. He took a deep breath, gazed at the night sky before him for a while, before adjusting his backpack and walked towards the stairs.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 36: THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/6/2011 10:59 a7/p7 / 7/6/2011 10:59 a7/p7

* * *

Keel Lorenz was a man not known for sleeping early. For the longest time it became a personal habit to be up until two in the morning, his mind swirling with ideas and responsibilities and duties to deal with while plotting and moving his chess pieces across the global board: manipulating politicians and clerics, deciding the policies of the agencies and militaries under SEELE's control, rewarding allies and punishing enemies.

Sitting on an easy chair by the fireplace, he paused to pick up his cup of Earl Grey tea and took a sip. The drink was still warm, pleasant and bittersweet as he wanted, a far cry from the ersatz coffee he had to chug in the last desperate days of World War Two, a Mauser Karabiner 98k on one hand and a tin cup in another, dirtied, worried and angry at Hitler for causing destruction on all Germans.

Keel sighed as he relived that sordid time of his youth, pressed into war, along with his other fellows, soon to be felled by Russian bullets and munitions and flamethrowers amidst the rubble, a very unforgiving lot they were.

His father, as Keel knew the story, was a fanatical occultist and an industrialist, and when the elder Lorenz discovered that Hitler was jumping with joy about himself being mentioned by Nostradamus in the prophet's quatrains, he offered his services and finances, hoping somehow that the longstanding dreams of SEELE could be made possible through the Third Reich.

But it was not to be, for the mad dictator devoted his energies micro-managing the army, much to the chagrin of his generals, all the while approving the development and use of conventional weapons, some of which included a massive battle tank and jet fighters. By the time the Russians were closing in on Berlin, in his frustration and anger over the loss and waste, the elder Lorenz went to the toilets in one of the underground bunkers, and blew out his brains with a pistol.

_What a difference it makes_, Keel told himself. He succeeded where his father had failed, rebuilding and consolidating SEELE into what it was today, more powerful and wide-ranging than any empire in history.

He wondered if there were any territories left to conquer, with almost everything under control, to be conveniently manipulated for profit or power, as SEELE no longer needed to fire a shot simply to seize every square meter of land and the people who occupied it. Hence, the world was in their hands, and they could do anything with it.

Like gods.

Except he and his fellows were in their mortal shells, in the twilight of their lives, most of them having gone far enough, tired and not contented, they all knew that there was one way to transcend corporeal existence and attain immortality: Instrumentality.

Keel looked upon the grandfather clock standing in the far corner: it past two in the morning. He picked up his phone and dialed for his Russian counterpart, Starayakov, for it was time for them to make contact with their angelic emissary, one which an Arab member of the council referred to Kaworu as _Malak al-Haq,_ or the Angel of Truth.

_That young man, whether he's allied or against us, _Keel thought, _one way or another, he knows he's fated to die._

* * *

Misato wasn't around by the time Shinji and Asuka arrived at their quarters, hair damp and clothes almost moistened by the pool water. While they made the journey back, they whispered sweet nothings and exchanging kisses in the elevator.

Still feeling cold, Shinji said, "Thought we should have some hot chocolate."

Asuka nodded as she dried her hair with a towel from the bathroom. "Sure, why not?" she replied happily, before she watched Shinji walk over to the kitchenette, took two packs of instant hot chocolate mix into mugs, and prepared the beverages with hot water and milk.

"When this is over," Shinji said as he stirred the two cups with a teaspoon, "I'll propose once we graduate from high school."

Asuka blinked. "You mean getting married?"

"Yeah, but for now we're still too young for that, and we're not yet done with this…" Shinji paused to sigh, and added, "This Angel business."

"I'm not anxious either," Asuka agreed as Shinji walked over to her and gave one of the filled mugs. "Thanks," she said.

Shinji nodded. "There's something else… I was wondering what the future would be for Ayanami and Nagisa."

Asuka took a sip. "Just like us, I suppose."

"Yeah, but from the looks of it, I think they're still learning," Shinji said as he sat down besides his girlfriend, and carefully drank a little so as not to allow his tongue to be scalded.

The redhead sighed in pleasure and said, "You know what? We've just crossed the threshold and, just look at the way you talk today… You're a different person now."

Shinji blinked, completely flattered. "Me?"

"Yeah," Asuka said. "Like as if you grown up in a space of six days."

The young man chuckled. "You're no different either; you have changed too."

For a moment the couple said nothing else as they drank up the hot cocoa, thinking of the sex they had down at the poolside, self-discovery in the most intimate way, even though they knew the risks. Both had the imagery of their passionate throes burned into their memories for the rest of their lives, to be cherished, and if needed be, reenact it.

"I just want to ask something else," Asuka said, breaking the silence.

"What?" Shinji wondered.

"In our future, where will your father be figuring in? I mean, where he'll fit?"

The young man shook his head. "I just don't know, because he's a complicated man, and because..."

"He has your mama in the head?"

"Yeah," Shinji answered, before sighing. "I'll never know if he'll change; he's too stubborn, beyond my reach... But you and Misato, and Ayanami and Nagisa are the only family I can rely on."

"Uh, speaking of Rei and Kaworu," Asuka said, "Any idea what else they're doing right now?"

Shinji smiled wryly. "Maybe they're now doing the same thing as we have done, I suppose."

* * *

Once again, just like a few nights before, Kaworu levitated his way across the lagoon, his feet not touching the surface of the calm waters, until he reached the rocky outcropping in the middle. He then took out and set up his communication equipment, donned the holographic glasses, before pressing a button on the phone to lock onto one of the orbiting SEELE-controlled communication satellites flying over Hakone until he got a clear signal. He pressed another button to transmit, the signal from the antenna fired up to more than 200 kilometers above the Earth.

The satellite then processed the signal, encrypted before retransmitting it through a downlink to Siberia, where an array of parabolic antennas obtained the link and rerouted it to the conference room where Keel and company awaited.

Before Keel was a long conference table, and seated around it was the rest of the council, with each of them a pair of holographic glasses placed before them. They looked eager, even in this early morning, anxious for any news from their ambassador.

"Let us begin, gentlemen," Keel said as they donned their glasses and signaled to an aide to acknowledge the linkup.

* * *

At around the same time, Makoto and Misato were looking at Kaworu through high-powered Nikon binoculars with the night-vision option installed. With the Renault Alpine parked behind them, they were stationed at a parking lot on the circumferential highway on the hills above what was left of Tokyo-3. By the readout of their rangefinders installed in the binoculars they were six kilometers away from Kaworu, unaware that he was being watched as he stood on a rocky outcropping.

"There," Makoto said as he held his binoculars. "I can see him now. What he's doing?"

"I think that's his electronic gear," Misato replied. "He's going to call his superiors. Talk about 'ET, phone home'."

"Yeah, with those glasses he's wearing, they must be holographic specs, as they're useful for immersive interaction such as teleconferencing."

"I see," Misato said. "Wonder what they'll be talking about… Shit, I should've borrowed some surveillance gear from Tsutomo, so that we could even eavesdrop on him."

"Wait, wait…" Makoto said. "Just look because something's up."

"Okay."

* * *

One by one, each of the black monoliths appeared as they encircled him. They towered, hovering above the early morning waters.

"Good morning," SEELE 01 simply greeted.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Kaworu answered at the cabal, bowing slightly with his head.

Behind his digital slab, Keel mumbled in approval. "We are very pleased to see you again," he began. "Now before we start, let me quote Ivan Karamazov: 'I want to be there when everyone suddenly understands what it has all been for.'"

"And we have now realized Karamazov's ambition," SEELE 04 intoned. "We know what it is all about."

"Aye," the other monoliths agreed in unison.

Kaworu nodded. "Can I speak on my behalf?" he asked politely.

"Yes, you may do so," SEELE 01 answered.

"From the way I have seen," Kaworu remarked, "humans are unable to create something out of nothing... They must have something to start with, because humans aren't gods. They're mere mortals."

"Yes, there were such ambitious fools who tried to be gods," SEELE 01 answered. "But there is a man who seeks to gain power equal to God... the one reason why Evas exist for that purpose."

"There is a man besides us who wants to reopen Pandora's Box," SEELE 05 added.

"And who wants to close the Box before hope can appear?" SEELE 02 opined.

Kaworu's eyes narrowed. "Hope?" he asked. "Yes, Lilim always seek hope for something... when there's desperation."

"There are as many forms of hope as there are people," SEELE 01 said. "Hope exists only in the hearts of people. However, in our case our hopes are materializing in our favor."

"In Lilith, the progenitor of humanity is the false successors from the Black Moon." SEELE 06 seconded.

"And in Adam, the progenitor of Angels are the true successors from the lost White Moon," SEELE 07 added.

"And whose salvaged soul resides only within you," SEELE 10 emphasized.

Kaworu nodded. "Yes, of course."

"But there is one thing you should know... Adam's revived body is already inside Ikari," SEELE 01 said. "This blasphemer will be our undoing if his plans succeed, and thus we should not allow it to impede our chances."

"I know that he has possession of Adam. Do you wish for me to stop him?" Kaworu asked.

For a moment the cabal didn't said a word until SEELE 01 cleared his throat. "That is not an option, as we are sure that traitor shall fail in his quest. Instead, you are supposed to continue the masquerade as planned until you sacrifice yourself."

Now it was Kaworu's turn to keep silence as he let Keel talk.

"You have been born and raised from the remains of Adam, using my DNA as the basis for your physical structure," SEELE 01 said. "We trained you, shaped your mind to be as wise and knowledgeable as we wanted, but you managed to exceed our expectations, as you were destined to fulfill your sacred vow."

Suddenly Kaworu wondered if Keel knew of his activities when they were not looking at him, as he detected suspicion in that elder's voice.

"We are everywhere, and hiding is futile," the old man behind the monolith said.

"Have I done something wrong?" Kaworu wondered.

If the monoliths were capable of movement, SEELE 01 would've leaned forward, close enough that Kaworu's face could fit into the digit on the black digital slate. Instead Kaworu heard a rumbling of the throat issuing from it, and then the old man spoke.

"You are supposed to do as planned," SEELE 01 said. "You were to supply us with intelligence, to know their movements and policies; you were supposed to emasculate this Ikari boy, to remove his resolve until he loses the will to fight with his Eva. Above all, you were supposed to provoke confusion and uncertainty within NERV once you show them that you are an Angel."

This time it sounded more of a downright accusation, as Kaworu thought in alarm, _What is going on?_

"You were meant to be our only hope to bring the fruition of our long-standing dreams, and yet… Yet, you chose an entirely different path from ours!" SEELE 01 growled.

Kaworu was taken aback by the unexpected rebuke, as it was now clear they were angry, and thus his eyes narrowed and said, "I have made my choice."

"What choice?" SEELE 01 demanded.

"I have chosen to live, rather than die for a fool's dream," Kaworu replied, defiance in his beating heart as he thought he could hear the old man's labored breathing, an indication that Keel was furious. "That is the truth," he added.

"Traitor," SEELE 01 spat out the word. "How hard-headed you are, young man. I am disappointed to hear from one of our sources that you have a little affair with the First Children."

"How much do you know?" Kaworu answered. "In the days since I arrived here I have discovered many things that I have never experienced before: friendship, trust, happiness, individuality, compassion, and the one thing that opened my eyes the most, and what the lilim sought for, is _LOVE!_"

At first, SEELE 01 said nothing, as he let Kaworu's words sink in, before he gave out a spiteful chuckle. "One way or another, you shall die gloriously," the old man said. "We know that you are now heavily involved with the First Children, whom we sought to obtain an audience from her and yet Ikari denied us the chance. Instead of doing as we ordered, you fell for this young woman because of this thing called love. We pity you for such a foolish and naïve course of action, which shall be of your undoing."

"I don't care," Kaworu said. "If I die and they know the truth about you and your plans, NERV, and perhaps the rest of the world, may oppose you to the death."

"Kaji is dead, and there's nothing else they could do about it," SEELE 01 answered, mentioning the spy slain by their executive agent. "Nothing will be gained from making a dead man talk."

"They did."

"How?" SEELE 01 demanded. "Whatever they'll do, NERV will soon be destroyed in the process, and we will emerge triumphant."

"They have the truth," Kaworu said. "I have seen it, and I'm sure they'll use this information to bring you down, even if I die as you wanted. But should I survive, I'll join the fight because I'll defend for the things I believe and value the most."

"Is it not, Mister Nagisa, that you quoted Nietzsche about idealism as a falsehood?" SEELE 01 countered, recalling their earlier conversation in the garden shortly before Kaworu's departure.

"That's right," Kaworu confirmed, fighting not to lose his composure.

"Love is a form of idealism," SEELE 01 said. "Love does not feed mouths or guarantee security for anyone; it does nothing except to confuse logic and reason, making fools even out of learned men and women who fall for it. It does not work here, and therefore not of use in our plans, because by the time Instrumentality is fulfilled, there shall be no human conflict and emotions to worry about as soon as we reach singularity. There will be eternal peace, there will be no pain or suffering, and above all, there will be no sin, as we become one with God."

Kaworu kept his silence, letting Keel vent his fury in carefully-measured words.

"Even if you have made the choice to fight us, such a decision will be irrelevant once we send the Eva Series. You will die along with them, and there's nothing you can do about it for the clock is ticking away. Of course, by this time I am sure that Commander Ikari has also placed you under suspicion, for he will stop at nothing in making his wish come true."

"Is it not because he loved his wife so much?" Kaworu questioned.

"Yui Ikari… No," Keel corrected himself. "Yui Saint-Clair. What a woman she was, opposing our plans, falsely believing that Eva will be a symbol of human existence. Why not Gendo Rokobungi should marry her? Because she was then connected to us, and he thought by identifying himself with SEELE will make him feel secure and powerful. Such idealistic fools, yet thanks to their contributions of knowledge they managed to accelerate the development of our plans."

"I see," Kaworu whispered.

"Before we leave," Keel said. "Now that you have chosen your fate, are you prepared?"

Kaworu took a breath, and said, "I am not afraid anymore, whether I live or die. Whatever happens to me, they will not underestimate you. As for the days I spent here, I changed their lives as much as they changed mine, and my friends are deserving of compassion. That's something I'll treasure even if I find myself in the jaws of death."

Keel snorted. "You are now useless to us, no matter whatever you say," he said. "You betrayed us and our goals. Henceforth, you shall be erased as predicted."

With those parting words, the monoliths vanished into the air, leaving Kaworu alone. He took off the glasses, then slowly sat down on the outcropping as the cold breeze blew around him and began to ponder on the words he made.

Kaworu sighed and then said, "Everything's going according to Ikari's plan."

* * *

"Looks like things have gotten pretty ugly for him," Makoto said, having noticed the disappointed expression on Kaworu's face.

"I can see that," Misato said. "I have a feeling that they must've known the truth, and so they scolded him... No, this is more serious, I think, because Kaworu was supposed to work for these guys, and then they discovered that he double-crossed them."

"The mole must've snitched on him," Makoto said.

"It could be…"

Without warning, Kaworu turned to face at their direction, and his crimson eyes stared back at them. The surprising move nearly caused the duo to drop the binoculars they were holding onto.

"What the hell?" Misato wondered aloud. "How did he know we're here?"

"I have no idea," Makoto answered. "I mean, look, he managed to sense our presence even this far."

"Let me check again," Misato said as she swung up the binoculars to see Kaworu again, before she felt the phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and flipped open to receive the call, without checking the caller ID first.

"This is Katsuragi," she responded, trying not to sound flabbergasted. "Who is this?"

"It's Nagisa, and you saw me," Kaworu replied.

Misato peered closer to see that the Fifth Children now had a mobile phone to his ear. "Y… Yeah," she said.

He looked upset. "Why are you watching over me?"

"Because, damn it, we thought you were talking to somebody, and we're very concerned about you!" Misato said. "That's what brought us to see you right down there, and precisely what the hell you were talking about, and with whom?"

"Somebody blew my cover," Kaworu answered. "Now that I'm finally done with them, from now on I know what's going to happen to me."

"What do you mean, 'them'? I don't understand!"

"The Committee has effectively disowned me because I neglected to act on their orders. Therefore I'm sure I'll be dead before lunchtime, so I'm expendable."

For a moment Misato had a pang of concern for Kaworu, and thus she said, "Hang on right there, don't leave! We'll try to pick you and Rei up and move you two to a safe place until the heat is off."

"No!" Kaworu said, opposing her offer. "I'll deal with it on my own. I'll take a stand."

Misato was aghast. "But… Your request has been denied! You must come with us!"

"This is my responsibility, Misato!" the Fifth Children countered. "I don't want you and our friends to get hurt and be implicated into this mess. Whatever happens to me, I must confront it, and I've got to protect Rei." Kaworu then shut off the phone, gathered and hastily shoved his communication equipment into his backpack and picked it up, before he levitated away, heading to the shore.

Misato groaned in fury, and she turned to Makoto.

"C'mon, we'll have to get Kaworu and Rei out of there!" she loudly commanded as her binoculars dangled violently around her chest.

"Damn right!" Makoto replied.

Just then she heard a pair of helicopters roaring over their heads. _God, they're coming for them!_ Misato cried in her thoughts.

They yanked the door open, jumped onto the seats, slammed the doors and Misato fired up the car. Without missing a beat they strapped on their seatbelts and the woman officer mashed on the gas pedal, the tires screaming and burning rubber as they left the parking lot at more than 120 kilometers per hour.

* * *

Kaworu was now running at full sprint, across the field of junk and concrete slabs, desperately heading back to Rei's home. He climbed up the stairs, his feet pounding the floor until he reached the door. He then entered and came up to Rei, who was then already awake and startled by his unexpected return.

"Where did you come from? What did you do?" Rei asked in an alarmed voice, sitting upright and her body covered with a blanket, seeing Kaworu panting in shallow breaths.

Kaworu stared back at Rei. She was genuinely frightened.

"We have to—" he said, but was cut off when the veranda doors were loudly smashed open, shocking both Children to see a pair of black-fatigue-wearing soldiers right before them as they disengaged from their rappelling ropes. One of the soldiers, with the words NERV SRT emblazoned on his vest, unholstered what looked like a pistol and fired a round into Kaworu's chest.

In a second and caught unawares, Kaworu saw a dart embedded right above his heart, and quickly he felt dizzy, not realizing that they hit him with a tranquilizer dart, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Astonished, frightened and completely disoriented, Rei then turned around to see the steel door slammed open, and several more soldiers filed in and pointed their submachine guns at her, as though she was a felon caught in the act.

"What do you want?" Rei demanded in a higher voice, her composure now completely broken, before she saw Commander Ikari walking in with a purposeful stride, and came close to stand before her bed. He then gave the girl a face of ice-cold fury.

"You're coming with me," Gendo spoke. "It's for your own good."

Rei looked defiant. "No," she replied. "What wrong he did to y—"

Gendo slapped Rei across the face with the back of his gloved right hand, nearly slamming the girl back onto the bed, before two of the commandoes grabbed and held her by the shoulders. Gendo then leaned forward and close to her face and said, "Your time with the Seventeenth Angel is over."

He then nodded to one of the soldiers, who produced an autoinjector syringe full of tranquilizer and stabbed it into Rei's shoulder. Like Kaworu, her eyes slowly rolled upwards, and then as she blacked out, the rest of her body slumped forward, still held up by the troopers.

Now Gendo gazed back at the soldiers around him. "Take them away," he ordered.

* * *

It was too late by the time Misato and Makoto came close to Rei's apartment, as she parked the car behind a pile of rubble and, more than a hundred meters away, they saw a bunch of Suburban and Pajero SUVs clustered near the building, along with the pair of helicopters hovering overhead, their search lights blazing on.

Picking up their binoculars once more to look closely, they saw Kaworu being carried away in a stretcher, his body tightly bound by belts and hefted by a pair of Second Section SRT commandoes, before they pushed in the stretcher into a van and shut the doors. They then saw poor Rei also on a stretcher, completely blindfolded and dressed only in her oversized polo shirt and underwear, with Commander Ikari following her to a waiting second van, wearing a stony expression on his face.

"Shit," she cursed through her clenched teeth, gritting in total frustration.

"Do you want to call up the Professor?" Makoto asked, using Fuyutsuki's former professional title.

"Warn him," Misato replied. "Hell, tell the rest of anyone involved, because they could be compromised!"

Makoto nodded, pulling out his phone and began dialing. As he waited for Fuyutsuki to pick up the phone, he overheard Misato swearing repeatedly in a low voice, blaming herself for not acting quickly.

* * *

In his office, Fuyutsuki was sleeping, snoring loudly behind his desk when he heard the phone trilling. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly picked up the phone and lazily said, "Who is this?"

"It's me, sir," Makoto replied. "It's urgent."

"What the hell is going on, Lieutenant?" Fuyutsuki blurted.

"Right now Commander Ikari has just captured Ayanami and Nagisa," Makoto rapidly warned. "Worse, we think you and the rest could be in danger now!"

Shocked, Fuyutsuki bolted from his chair and replied, "Where are you?"

"I'm with Katsuragi, sir!" Makoto informed. "We were too late to rescue them at her apartment, so I think you still have time to get out of there fast!"

But already the old man was up on his feet, having put down the receiver, and just as he was done wearing his shoes, the door slid open and four agents appeared before him, all wearing fatigues and bullet-proof vests. Worse, they also had their pistols trained upon him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Fuyutsuki demanded of the men present.

"Sir, you're under arrest," one of the agents said. "We're acting on Commander Ikari's orders."

This time Fuyutsuki was outraged. "For what crime? I have done nothing wrong!"

"For treason, sedition and conspiracy to depose the Commander by illegal means," the agent unapologetically said as another brought out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them on Fuyutsuki's wrists. "You have the right to remain silent, and anything you say or do may be used against you," the agent added, invoking the localized version of the famous American Miranda Law.

The old man then sighed in defeat, and without resistance he went along with the agents. Worse, he was yet to be informed that Director Hamamoto and Ritsuko Akagi were also arrested at the same time, and there was also no way for him to know how Kaworu Nagisa and Rei Ayanami would be detained and where.

However, he hoped that the rest of those in the know might be able to get Makoto's warning and act immediately.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Like some parts that I envisioned while conceiving this fic years ago, this was once a snippet of scenery which I was now able to expand on, an extended version of the final meeting between Kaworu and SEELE. Furthermore, from this point onward even I wonder how I'll be wrapping up Season Three, as I'm slowly deviating further from the original plot of Episode 24.

But not to worry, I'll try to do my best to deliver on a regular basis (even as I'm also working on an _Eva_ crossover with _Madoka Magica_), and to those who put this fic up on their Story Alerts, I thank you very much for your appreciation.


	37. The Road to Golgotha

They couldn't just believe what Commander Ikari was able to do to them, and how did he know what they were up to?

This was what Kozo Fuyutsuki had in mind as his eyes gazed at the others, jailed just like him, and they were all upset: Hamamoto was seething with anger, his hands gripping the edge of the cot as if he was about to tear it off; Ritsuko had a similar expression on her face, while consoling Maya, shedding tears as the junior officer had her head on the older woman's lap; even Shigeru Aoba had his arms crossed, while sitting on the floor, breathing heavily while trying not to blow up his top.

Hamamoto groaned and muttered, "This bastard is damn amazing, and this confirms that he's near a mind reader. Surely a sign he's so fucking paranoid because he knows that his pet project would be completed soon and he doesn't want anyone to ruin his party, and sir, has he ever got an extra course in Machiavelli 101 for this?"

It was utterly humiliating for the now-deposed head of Section Two to lose his office more than thirty minutes after he issued an order to search for any form of possible sabotage in the entire base. As he was directing the other agents to check vital facilities, he hadn't expected Morrissey to show up with Ikari's personal retinue of guards, and with indifference shove the arrest warrant right in his face. Next thing he witnessed was having a pair of handcuffs coming down on his own wrists.

He'd been betrayed by his own second-in-command, and he hated the smug look on Morrissey's face as the turncoats dragged him off to the Stockade; he suspected the limey for months, especially his unsavory character, but in the end Morrissey was really an opportunist, waiting for him to fall.

Once more he sighed, and said, "I couldn't believe it…"

"I should've… No, I mean, we should've known this was coming," Fuyutsuki added. "But I never thought it would be this soon."

Nobody else said a word, each to their own sordid thoughts, but feared that with Ikari now seemingly unstoppable, soon the worst may yet to come with all of them having a front row seat of the apocalypse.

Helplessly they all wondered, _What are we going to do now?_

"Wait," Ritsuko spoke, finally breaking the silence. "We may have only one chance."

"What?" Hamamoto questioned. "You have an idea?"

"They have yet to catch Misato and Makoto," Ritsuko said, "and they're probably out there somewhere."

Fuyutsuki blinked. "Really?" he asked as the rest focused their attention at the dye-blond woman.

Ritsuko nodded. "I'm sure her instincts are at work once again," she said. "If she knows that we're all here, then I'm also sure that she'll get us out, come hell or high water."

The idea of Misato Katsuragi breaking them out of jail suddenly brightened their moods and heightened their hopes, and this led to Hamamoto wondering if he had an army of loyalists within his department willing to do the same thing for them, hoping that not all of them were happy with Morrissey in charge.

And among a few good men whom Hamamoto trusted completely, one of them was Tsutomo Kanzaki, who at the moment was sleeping with Natsumi Odani in her home.

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 37:THE ROAD TO GOLGOTHA / MORNING RESCUE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/19/2011 9:31 a7/p7 / 7/19/2011 9:31 a7/p7

* * *

_In her drugged sleep, Rei was dreaming once more._

_Wearing a blue silk kimono__ patterned with blossoms and clouds, she found herself in a huge, exquisitely-decorated imperial palace, fit for an emperor with its many rooms and hallways, lacquered wooden floors polished to a near-mirror finish, tapestries on the walls, and tatami mats laid out to carpet every floor space. _

_Outside this palace, situated on a hill, was a lush stone garden, shaded by gingko, cherry and pine trees, and birds chirping while perched on its branches. Beyond and below that, over a low stone wall, was a river, whose waters glistened in the sun, and an arched bridge spanned across its grassy banks, painted in red and embellished with decorative motifs, and out there was a seemingly endless expanse of rice fields and pastures._

_But r__ight before her and occupying much of the room was a large weaving machine, its frame and mechanism shining and overlaid with gold leaf, and Rei was producing yard after yard of finished silk from delicate threads as she pedaled the machine, rich with color as the dye magically infusing itself into the fabric as it came out of the machine, and in seemingly endless combinations of beautiful patterns._

For whom this silk was made for? _she wondered while carrying out her imaginary labors before she heard animal noises in the distance, buoyed by the breeze coming into the chamber though the open doors._

_T__he noise was the sound of brown-furred cows braying and mooing, the bells tied to their necks and clanking as they hunkered down the banks on the other side of the river to drink and bathe after half a day's worth of grass. Without letting go of the machine Rei watched this simple spectacle, before she noticed the cow-herder as he tipped his straw hat, revealing his face._

_It was Kaworu__ in a peasant's dark blue yukata, the water up to his knees while holding a staff in his right hand. With his other hand he waved to greet her like a simple commoner, rather than to bow deeply in homage as though Rei was a child of a living god._

What are you doing there?_ he asked Rei as if through telepathy._

I am weaving, _Rei answered._

For whom and why?

_Rei blinked twice, and deciding she had no answer, the girl let go of the weaving machine, __causing the contraption to stop moving, before she stood up and rushed out of the mansion, her feet suddenly shod in slippers. She ran across the garden, broke through the wooden gate, surprising the guards, and came down the stone stairway until she reached the bottom, where a road laid in sandstone led all the way to the bridge, and once more she sprinted, hoping she could reach Kaworu._

_But just as she was close to setting foot on the arched bridge, without warning the middle span __was blown apart and outwards into splinters and dust, creating a huge cloud of debris over the river. The explosion's shockwave slammed Rei back onto the road, causing her to be dazed for a few moments until she struggled to get up onto her feet._

_Now the__ imperial bridge was cut in half, which meant that she was forever to be isolated from Kaworu, and as she turned around she saw Commander Ikari, dressed in a shogun's traditional heavy set of full battle armor and a pair of swords hanging from his left side. He walked towards her, grabbed the girl's right wrist, and with a fierce scowl close to her face, he said in an icy voice:_

Rei, you have a purpose. You are the vessel in which you must deliver Yui to me; bring her back into my arms at the cost of your life.

That is your duty, and that is what you are made for.

_And tears broke out of her eyes._

* * *

The First Children woke up with a start, the first sight of her tear-filled eyes, as she blinked, revealed her surroundings, and it dawned upon her that she was now a prisoner, caged in a Plexiglas cube suspended from the ceiling by a thick column of steel, surrounded by a circle of rotating black columns, in a huge spherical room completely walled in and laid up with tiles of foam cones, save for a single camera aimed at her.

Strapped to a seat bolted to the floor, Rei tugged at the belts restraining her wrists and ankles, and knew instantly that there was no way she would be able to escape; the rotating columns were powerful inhibitors called Angel-Sealing Hex Pillars, designed to neutralize and contain Angelic energies and thwart any attempt at generating an AT-Field.

Breathing in shallow gasps, Rei couldn't believe that she was here, and judging by the ruthless amount of security imposed upon her, it was clear that Commander Ikari was steely determined to keep her in place.

She also knew what this chamber was made for, and the Commander once told her that its original purpose was to keep and isolate captured Angel embryo for further study, but the only attempt at obtaining one of those Angels at such a stage ended in futility when the target creature broke out of its shell deep in a volcano, forcing Asuka and Unit-02 to kill it.

Dejected and defeated, Rei hung her head downward, her hopes extinguished as she was sure that Kaworu was imprisoned in another of these chambers like this one.

"Good morning," Gendo greeted her through a loudspeaker installed somewhere in this chamber, causing Rei's eyes to fly open.

"What wrong I have done?" Rei questioned in a calm voice, trying not to show weakness or any attempt at struggling from the straps bounding her down.

"This is for your own good," Gendo answered. "I want to protect you from yourself, just as I have to protect Nagisa from himself, but both of you still have a purpose."

Rei swallowed hard, but she felt a sharp pain. Seeking for its source by craning her neck to the left, she saw that there was an IV needle stuck to her left arm, its slim tube leading upwards, feeding her drips of dextrose through the bloodstream.

"I know my purpose, but that is not yours to alter," Rei said.

"It stands as it is," Gendo replied, with a confident tone in his voice. "Soon, once Instrumentality happens, you'll have to take me to Yui's side. That's your final duty."

Rei closed her eyes hard as if to think for a moment, and opened them again, her cerise eyes flashing with defiance as if her will would burn through the steel-lined, concrete shell.

"_I am not your doll_," she declared. "I am not you."

For a moment afterwards she heard nothing from Gendo, and her mind began to count the seconds, then minutes, until he broke the silence once more.

"Nobody will try to save you or Nagisa, nor will somebody try to stop me from doing what I planned to do for a long time," Gendo spoke back. "The people whom I entrusted once have attempted to usurp my authority and to seize NERV from me by force. They have taken advantage of the discord that the Committee has generated through terrorism to question my leadership and to undermine the stability I have established to keep this organization in order."

Gendo paused for a second and then added, "Fuyutsuki, Akagi, Hamamoto and some other conspirators close to them have been captured and jailed for their abortive attempt. Likewise I have enacted a manhunt to seek and arrest Colonel Katsuragi and her aide Lieutenant Hyuga, and later on I shall issue further arrest orders and name names to bring down others involved in this conspiracy. As for the Committee's spies, they will likewise be dealt with extreme prejudice."

Rei said nothing, as Gendo sighed in pleasure.

"As soon as the Third Children wakes up later," he said. "He'll do as I say as soon as he discovers the true purpose of his friend Nagisa, and I'm sure you know him on an intimate level. Of course that Angel will die as predicted in the Scrolls, thereby leaving us the final phase in implementing Instrumentality."

"My brother and Asuka might as well stop this insanity of yours, and that of the Committee, with their own terms," Rei said in defiance.

"Well," Gendo said. "I'm surprised at your language, and how fast you were able to speak in such a refreshing way. Where did you learn it from whom? And you call the Third Children your brother?"

"Yes, Shinji is my _brother_," the First Children said, this time using Shinji's given name rather than the usual surname.

"How did you know?"

"We are both related by blood and DNA, and you were supposed to be our _father_," Rei replied. "But you betrayed him, you crushed his hopes for you as a father, and you made me a tool for your exploitation, to be disposed of afterwards, just like the other copies of me that Akagi destroyed out of her hatred for you."

By the sheer force of Rei's searing retort, and the way she spoke, completely out of line for her normally docile and obedient character, Gendo realized that he was arguing with the outraged reincarnation of his late wife.

It made him blink for the first time.

"I have finally understood _Mother_, her purpose of using Eva for good, and that she brought meaning to your life," Rei said. "Mother was everything to you, and she gave you everything that you could not have. But once she left this world and suddenly you felt empty, what did you gave to Shinji?"

This time it was Gendo's turn to be silenced.

"You left him alone," Rei continued. "You gave him despair; you made him suffer and forced him to question his own purpose in this world. He longed for a father like you to love him, yet you did nothing but kept him away while you were obsessed with the idea of bringing Mother back into this world."

Now she could hear Gendo breathing heavily, as though in rage, his confidence shattered with the revelations thrown back into his face.

"You are _not_ Yui… Impostor, that is _enough!_" he thundered, voice cackling with controlled fury, and at the same time Rei unexpectedly felt her head spinning once again and her sight fading out as sedatives through the IV line hit the bloodstream and thence to her brain, causing the girl to black out in her seat.

* * *

In his silent rage, face contorted in anger, struggling to breathe as if after being strangled, Gendo made a fist and slammed it on the console. The action startled the three technicians who were monitoring everything in the control room, covered with control panels and monitors, half of them displaying Rei in her seat, as she slumped towards unconsciousness.

He then turned to one of the technicians, who looked nervous, and said, "Keep an eye on her, and whatever you've seen or heard here should never leave this place. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," the technicians replied, nodding in obedience, trying not to be cowed by the man's intense gaze and stony face.

Gendo now focused his attention at the other half of monitors devoted to Kaworu Nagisa, still in controlled coma, strapped in his seat, unaware that he was about to be made as a sacrifice in the coming hours. He then picked up one of the phones and dialed Morrissey's number. The man on the other end answered.

"Orders, sir?" Morrissey asked.

"By oh-five-hundred hours, prepare the Seventeenth Angel to be moved to Terminal Dogma and position him there," he ordered, before he put down the phone and stormed out of the control room, heading back to his living quarters to take a nap; once he wakes up again later, he'll be at the command center just in time to witness the final moments of Kaworu Nagisa's brief existence.

"Children," he muttered in disgust while walking, passing through the door, and over it was a sign that said: **ANGEL CONTAINMENT FACILITY – RESTRICTED AREA**.

* * *

From an entrance, bored into the mountain and located three kilometers away from the center of what was once Tokyo-3, Misato and Makoto were now in one of the emergency access tunnels leading down to the Geofront, after leaving the Alpine hidden behind thick bushes. She knew because the Children once told her about this passageway when one of the Angels attacked the city by completely disabling electrical flow in a wide radius, including power for the elevators and the doors. They used this tunnel to gain access to reach their Evas in time, but not without encountering a series of obstacles along the way, which included wrong turns, and then an elevator going more than a kilometer down to the complex.

They were halfway through when they encountered a high wall about seven feet tall, and the door that was once there was sealed off with concrete and mortar blocks. Makoto had no choice but to let Misato stand on his shoulders, and at the same time keep her laptop secured in its bag, still dangling to his left shoulder.

"Okay, a few more," she said as Makoto strained against her weight, struggling to keep himself upright before his feet and legs exerted more strength to carry her up. Meanwhile she was able to acquire a hold onto the top of the wall, and pulled herself upwards.

Panting and perched on top, Misato reached downward with an open hand. "Now, get my hand!" she ordered and Makoto clasped to her hand and gripping it, and then with available strength she pulled him up.

"C'mon, one more!" she barked.

"Okay!" Makoto answered, his feet clawing against the wall, trying not to make one slip or they could fall down altogether, until he finally made it.

With one hand trying to keep the laptop against his body and from falling, Makoto steadied himself carefully to leap off to the other side, and let go. He landed on the floor, before Misato followed suit.

Now they dusted themselves off, and as they did Misato said, consulting her watch, "Six past three. We still have enough time."

"Yeah," Makoto said between breaths. "Good thing there weren't any surveillance cameras in here."

Their eyes adjusted to the near-darkness, the chamber being lit by a red light bulb, until they could make out the breadth and width; there were boxes lined up along the wall, and as they walked through this corridor they could smell the dust, accumulated through the years this place was left untouched.

But as they passed by one of the huge ventilators, its fan whirling loudly, Misato saw that its access door was blocked with yellow plastic strips, and upon closer look on one of the strips it read, in Helvetica block letters:

**CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS – NERV**** DEPARTMENT OF SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE**

Misato and Makoto looked at each other, before glancing at the room just beyond the off-limits tape. The woman sighed.

"Isn't the last time Kaji was here, right?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah," Misato said, tinge of sorrow in her voice, before she cautiously went under the tape.

"What are you doing?" Makoto pleaded. "We don't have much—"

Misato signaled him with an upraised hand. "Wait," she responded as she knelt down right before the chalk-marked outline where Kaji fell. "I need to reflect first," she added. "Give me a minute."

"Okay," Makoto said.

The woman then stared at the dried pool of blood, now weeks old, and closed her eyes. In her mind's sight and thoughts flipping through her photo album of memories, Misato willed herself to remember the good times she had with Kaji: happy moments, tense moments, funny and the awkward, and the only time she was able to confess about her feelings.

She could only imagine him being here, watching at this very moment, the only sound she could also here was the whirling of the ventilator's fan blades.

"Kaji, give me strength," Misato whispered. "We'll be facing the toughest time of our lives, and you may not be here, but... I still don't forget you, and I thank you for entrusting me the secrets of this place, which I hope may help us decide the fate of this world."

Making one last sigh, Misato then stood up and added, "Someday, I'll be seeing you again." She turned around and walked back to Makoto, who looked solemn.

"Well?" he asked as they stepped out of the crime scene.

"There are things and people we should be thankful for, even for the smallest chances," she said as they trudged onwards. "Okay, first thing we have to do, if some of them are locked out, is to contact Tomo."

Makoto chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure he's with Natsumi."

"Given that they're almost loaded by the time they left early," she said, "I suppose he slept with her. After all, it's no secret to me that he wanted to have a date, and he got his wish."

The bespectacled officer nodded. "Ah… What about Chacon and Nguyen? They're really on the outside, but we could also trust them."

"Great idea," Misato answered in approval. "You got their numbers?"

Makoto shook his head. "No, but I'll check the directory as soon as we can get within wireless net range."

"Good. We'll need their help, and then we also have to get to Shinji and Asuka, too," she said. "Same thing with Kaworu and Rei, but I guess they're in much deeper."

Makoto blinked. "Wait… apart from the guards, who's going to deal with the surveillance systems? Only a few have access to the cameras, doors and sensors, you know, and with all that, with us already marked, there's no way we could make it to the Stockade."

But Misato grinned. "That's where Natsumi comes in," she said, "because I believe she still has authorization to use the MAGI, thereby giving her full access to the entire system."

This time Makoto laughed. "You're a genius, and I'm not kidding."

"Thanks," she replied.

By the time they made it to the threshold of the installation, cautiously tiptoeing and dodging surveillance cameras visibly placed every 100 meters, and hiding into rooms whenever they thought they saw people coming their way, the duo peered up at the sign above their heads:

**BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH LAB**** – BIOHAZARD/PATHOGEN WARNING – UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL PROHIBITED**

Beyond that sign was an airlock just ahead of them; and to the left of the airlock door was a side-room indicating where hazmat suits were kept.

"Let's get there," Misato said, before darting across and reached the door, and then she opened it. There they went in and quickly wore the suits hanging from racks, and then put on wrap-around masks and rebreathers, thus completing their disguises. To complete their spacemen-like masquerade, Makoto took hold of a large cart and a pack of plastic bags with the word BIOHAZARD printed on, before placing the laptop inside and off they went to a bank of waiting elevators.

Now once inside in one of the elevators, Misato punched the button for the hangar bay where the aviation squadron kept its aircraft and housed the pilots who flew them. As the elevator surged downward, taking off their masks for a moment, Makoto used the laptop to access the network and taking hold of the online directory.

"There," Makoto said, pointing at the line within the list, denoting Trudy and Paul's phone numbers. "That's their numbers."

"Good," Misato replied before dialing Paul's phone.

* * *

In their quarters, adjacent to the hangar where NERV's helicopter and VTOL aircraft were stored and maintained, and while sleeping on the couch, Paul was unexpectedly awakened by the vibration coming from his mobile phone. He slowly picked it up from his side and answered. "Hello?" he asked in a sleepy voice. "Isn't it too early for this?"

"It's me, Paul," Misato said.

Paul managed a yawn, recognizing her voice. "What's up, Colonel?"

"We need your help."

The pilot blinked, his eyes trying to adjust to the darkness. "Why, ma'am, what's wrong?"

"The Sub-Commander and the others have been arrested."

This time Paul was shocked, causing him to sit upright. "What?"

"I'll explain later, and get yourselves ready, but do you still have your weapon?"

"Yeah," Paul answered. "I have a Colt Government, with two more spare mags to go."

"Just great," Misato approved. "Now wake up Trudy because you two have to help me get everyone out of the Stockade. Meet us at the elevators, and fast!"

"Roger that," Paul said before Misato closed the line. He then put down his phone on the dresser and walked the expanse of the room, to knock on Trudy's door to her bedroom. He could hear her snoring, followed by the crunching of the bed springs as she got up to her feet.

"Damn it," Trudy answered, her voice muffled by the door. "What the hell do you want?"

"Get dressed," Paul ordered as he put on his pants. "Colonel Katsuragi needs us for some action… I mean, help her do a jailbreak."

"WHAT?"

* * *

By the time they arrived at the elevator hall, Paul whispered, "Where are they?"

Poking from the door of the janitor's closet was a hand waving at them. It was Misato, all right, as they scurried towards the door, got in and slammed the door.

"What's going on?" Trudy asked, taking note of the pile of suits and masks on the floor, which the fugitives had taken off.

Misato and Makoto explained to them the events and circumstances which led to the wholesale arrests, and she even told about Kaworu and Rei, both of them taken away and caged somewhere in the base; in one fell swoop Commander Ikari decided to remove those he deemed as traitors.

"So that leaves us unscathed this far," Paul said. "By the way, we're packing heat." He and Trudy then showed them their sidearms: Paul's Model 1911 gleamed in the dim light, in contrast to Trudy's black polymer Glock 17.

"What about Tsutomo?" Trudy asked as she holstered the Glock back.

"He's with Natsumi," Misato said.

Trudy chuckled. "Talk about hot coffee."

Makoto and Misato blinked. "_Hot coffee?_"

"Um… Yeah," Trudy said. "Remember about that game with the 'hot coffee' part?"

"Dunno," Makoto said, shrugging his shoulders. "Haven't played something like that."

Trudy shook her head and grinned. "I'll spare you the guessing; It means they really hooked up. In bed. The game that I'm talking about is _GTA:_ _San Andreas._"

"Ah," Misato said, and then they all burst into laughter.

"You Americans," Makoto said in jest. "Anyway, we need to get to Natsumi's quarters."

"Where?' Paul asked.

"It's right up the hillside," Misato said, "We must reach those guys because Tomo has a few friends in Section Two he can trust, and Natsumi knows how to play the MAGI like a harp."

* * *

A few minutes later, Paul and Trudy, both wearing flight suits, were pushing the cart along the hallway when they were spotted by a quartet of roving security troopers in full battle gear. They looked dead-serious.

"Sir, have you seen Colonel Katsuragi and Lieutenant Hyuga?" one of the troopers asked Paul, taking note of his collar officer rank.

Paul and Trudy shook their heads. "N… No," he said. "We're just getting our laundry washed."

The trooper peered into the cart, which was indeed full of dirty clothes and linen, before he said, "All right, sir, you may go, but tell us if you spot them."

"Why?" Trudy asked.

"We have a warrant for their arrest," the trooper answered. "On Commander Ikari's orders."

"Damn," Paul said. "What for?"

The trooper cleared his throat. "Treason."

"Okay, Sarge, we'll tell you if they show up," Paul said. "Carry on."

"Yes, sir," the trooper said as they saluted each other, before they walked away.

Once the troopers were out of sight, Paul blew a sigh of relief as Trudy whispered, "That was a close call."

"Just stay frosty, guys," Misato said beneath the pile, before they pushed the cart into the elevator, and Paul pressed a button to get them to the motor pool.

As the elevator lurched upward, Misato and Makoto climbed out of the cart, tossing away the laundry that was heaped on them.

"That was brilliant," Trudy said. "Good thing they didn't bother to dig in."

"It's also a good thing that they didn't have any dogs to sniff us out," Misato added before the elevator doors opened.

The motor pool was silent by the time they came out of the elevator, and quickly the three of them hopped into an empty Humvee, as Paul went into the maintenance officer's office, took the keys from the rack on the wall near the desk.

He then rushed out of the office, got into the driver's seat and gunned the engine.

"Which way?" Paul asked.

"Route 6, to the left," Misato said, poking her head from behind his seat.

"Roger that," the Cheyenne jock said before he pressed on the gas, rolling out of the garage and onto asphalt. Turning left, he saw the road ahead and it went through the forest, before climbing up the hillside.

* * *

They passed the minutes talking, mostly about last night's drinking spree, and meanwhile Fuyutsuki checked his watch: 3:35 in the morning, and he wondered what Gendo was scheming next before he remembered the Fifth Children.

"I have a bad feeling about what's going to happen to that young man," Fuyutsuki said, causing the others to take notice.

"Who?" Ritsuko asked, this time Maya sleeping on her lap.

"I'm sure Ikari has Nagisa by the neck, and without us to stop him, he's free to do whatever he wants… Good grief, it means he's determined to go further than the Committee."

"Haste makes waste, I suppose," the woman remarked. "But not him; he'll try to micromanage everything."

"Like Hitler," Hamamoto chimed in as he flexed his toes. "He'll overrule his generals, even if they offered him good advice and prudence. Thus in his madness, along with the failure of Operation Valkyrie, which was an assassination attempt supposed to take him down, he drove Germany into hell till he blew off his own head. Sounds familiar?"

* * *

Sanderson wasn't aware that his explosive handiwork was in the process of being dismantled, as teams of bomb experts defused his detonators one by one after they found them with their bomb-sniffing dogs. Instead he was assigned in another team, as they went hunting down Misato and Makoto, but were having a hard time finding those two. Like the others, this team was fully armed with submachine guns and wore vests and fatigues.

"Level 9 clear," the team leader spoke into his handheld radio. There was no sign of Katsuragi within this level in the Geofront, and besides, where they should be going?

Now Sanderson had an idea.

"Say," he said. "Why don't we check out the emergency routes at Level 6?"

"Sure," the other agent agreed. "We haven't covered that yet."

As they hopped into the elevator, another younger agent said in an accent coming from upstate New York, "I don't understand why she would be involved in this conspiracy. All I know is that she's the best Eva operations chief there is; I personally met her, and she didn't do anything wrong."

"Shut your trap, Kiley," the team leader chided sharply, his near-perfect English colored by his past in Osaka. "We're just following orders, fanboy. Otherwise your mouth might get your ass in trouble."

The mole shook his head. _You guys don't quite know what you're really looking for._

* * *

Both Natsumi and Tsutomo were sleeping on the bed, naked beneath the sheets, their clothes scattered around the floor when he heard a loud knocking on the door. Blinking his eyes, he slowly parted the sheets, picked up his pants and pulled them up to the waist, before he instinctively sought for his service pistol in his jacket, which was also on the floor.

_Ah, shit, I forgot,_ he cursed himself to find his jacket empty, as the knocking progressively became louder. _I've left it in my crib._

Instead, needing for a ready weapon, Tsutomo went to the kitchen and found a saucepan, hefted it in his hand and then walked over to the door, anticipating anything hostile, before he peered into the peephole.

"Who is it?" he questioned.

"It's us, Tomo," Misato replied. "It's an emergency!"

Tsutomo let out a sigh of relief, and then he opened the door, letting the quartet in.

"Thank goodness… What brings you guys here in this ungodly hour?" he questioned as they sat down on the sofa and the easy chairs in the living room, before he turned on the lights.

"Fuyutsuki and the others are in trouble," Misato said. "They're jailed in the Stockade."

"What?" Tsutomo blurted in shock. "How the hell that happened?"

"That's not all," Makoto added. "Ayanami and Nagisa were taken away on Ikari's orders. He did all of that simply to get anyone who opposed him out of the way, and at the same time keep those two Children under his thumb."

Tsutomo hissed through his teeth. "Shit, that's unbelievable," he cursed. "Talk about an preemptive strike... So what about you guys?"

"We're marked, I'm afraid," Misato said. "We managed to sneak in, though. We came here so that we could break them out of jail, and if possible, pull the tables on Ikari and avert a possible disaster."

Tsutomo blinked. "Do you have a plan?"

"Yeah," Misato answered. "Call up anyone you trust, and then…" Now she saw Natsumi come out of the bedroom, dressed in a tank-top and a pair of denim shorts. She looked worried.

"What's going on?" Natsumi asked as she sat down on the ottoman. "I mean, Fuyutsuki's been arrested?"

Misato told her the whole story.

"Good Christ," Natsumi exclaimed afterwards. "So, now that you're crazy to pull off a jailbreak, where do we figure in your gameplan?"

"Okay," Misato said. "Tomo's gonna have to bring enough trusted guys with muscle to help us out, to disarm or fool any opposition we encounter, while you… Do you still have authorization to use the MAGI under administrator mode?"

"Yeah," Natsumi answered. "Well, the sysadmins forgot to change my user permissions after Akagi was reinstated, which is a very good thing. So what do you want me to do?"

"Simple: play merry havoc with the surveillance systems in that level where it contains the Stockade. Make it look like there's a glitch in the system, to buy us some time, to distract them, and to cover our tracks."

Natsumi and Tsutomo nodded in unison. "Sounds like a great plan," Tsutomo agreed. "What else?"

"After that," Misato said, "we have to break into the Angel Containment Facility, and I think they're holding Kaworu and Rei in there. I need Kaworu because of his scheme he came up with."

"How?" Natsumi asked, before Misato told them all what Kaworu wanted her to do, a plan that was worthy of _Ocean's Eleven_.

"So again, Natsumi," Misato said afterwards, the whole scheme leaving them in awe. "I'm sure you also have the necessary clearances."

"Damn, I forgot," Natsumi replied. "You're right. No changes in that, either. All access in all areas, and no restrictions."

Misato chuckled and spoke, "I think we do have Lady Luck on our side, right?"

"Sure is," Tsutomo said. "By the way, before we get ready to go… do you guys need some iced coffee… Or _Morning Rescue_?" he suggested, speaking of the famed orange-like drink that was said to bring overnight drunks back to functionality by dawn.

The mere mention of Morning Rescue caused them to burst into laughter, generally because of its wacky TV ads.

* * *

Five minutes later they were heading back to HQ on the Humvee, with Paul behind the wheel, and with both Natsumi and Tsutomo fully-dressed. But halfway there they saw a dozen men waiting by the roadside curb with their own Humvee parked and idling, prompting Paul to step on the brakes.

"That you guys?" Tsutomo called out from the passenger-side window of the vehicle. He squinted and recognized Shinichi Morisato, who walked close with a bundle in his right hand. They were wearing regulation BDUs and bulletproof vests, and this was Tsutomo's SRT unit, as he was their team leader.

"Yeah," Shinichi said. "Thanks for the call, now we got a clear picture of what's going on. Speaking of Morrissey, we don't like that fucking opportunistic bastard."

Before they left, Tsutomo made a call to Shinichi and told him the story, and in return the younger agent spoke as to how and why Fuyutsuki was arrested, before Tsutomo told him the hard facts.

"I see," Tsutomo approved. "I thought you'll just follow along."

"I believe in the Sub-Commander," Shinichi added. "He's still a good guy in my book, and so is our Chief. Personally, I suspected the Commander being nuts for some time, but now… thanks to you I was right."

"You got anything?"

Shinichi said, "Yeah, we have the works, and we even have some stunners, flash-bangs, smoke and teargas, and since you asked me for it, I have this spare gun." He promptly handed over an H&K USP 45 pistol to Tsutomo, along with its body harness and three additional magazines.

Tsutomo grinned back as he wore the harness. "Thanks, and okay, let's roll and move out," he ordered.

* * *

Kaworu slowly blinked, completely dazed and wondering where he now wounded up in. The last thing he remembered was a soldier firing a dart, hitting him squarely in the chest, and they simply watched him fall down.

Now…

_Where am I?_

Once more Kaworu blinked again, his eyes adjusting to the harsh new light, until he realized he was now in a prison.

He shook his head, and then his eyes took in the surroundings: a spherical prison, eight rotating columns, a Plexiglas cube, straps holding him to the chair, an IV drip stuck to his vein, and to add insult to injury, he was suddenly overwhelmed by an excruciating headache.

The pain caused Kaworu to grit his teeth, and his tortured mind tried to figure out the source of the searing pain while trying not to scream.

It wasn't whatever chemicals was being fed into his bloodstream, or the aftereffects of the tranquilizer, but it became clear to him that those columns were radiating a form of energy that seemed to be eating into his ability to generate an AT-Field.

But the pain only magnified his fury and the desire to squelch the pain altogether, thus Kaworu defied the pain by using his training to "divert" it to another faculty of his brain, and then he built up his willpower to escape by driving up the strength of his AT-Field to overwhelm the destructive effect of the columns.

And the clear plastic cube began to shake.

* * *

The guys running the Stockade were surprised when they saw Tsutomo – now fully dressed in combat gear – and his team coming right at them, with Misato and Makoto in handcuffs, as they entered the reception room. Promptly the Stockade supervisor saluted him.

"We caught them as they were trying to sneak their way back here," Tsutomo reported, with Shinichi nodding.

"I see," the staff sergeant in charge of the Stockade said, as he pulled out a clipboard for the agent to sign, hoping he would make a more detailed report later on, but without warning Tsutomo and his men drew out their guns and pointed them at the surprised guards, who immediately held their hands up.

"Don't try to call, don't press the panic button," Tsutomo warned them calmly, his pistol a few centimeters away from the head jailor's forehead. "Drop your weapons and we'll be fine, okay?"

The guards could only blink as they nodded in obedience, dropping and kicking away their pistols on the floor towards the team, who then removed the magazines and gathered them all into a duffel bag.

"Now open them up," Tsutomo ordered, watching another disarmed guard scurry to the cells along with three of Tsutomo's men, before he radioed Natsumi, who was in a lounge about a hundred meters away from them, sitting before a bank of vending machines.

"How's it going?" he asked through his throat mike.

"The surveillance cameras are now locked to loop," she said, meaning to say Natsumi, using Misato's laptop, accessed the MAGI and tapped into the surveillance camera system, cut out a portion of video and then played it back to the recording subsystem and the camera feeds; anyone watching the footage in real time or in recording will get a seemingly peaceful scene from the cameras.

"Very good," Tsutomo said, as he watched Fuyutsuki and the rest walk out of the cells, glad to be finally free, and the sight alone allowed him to sigh in relief and salute the old man. "Good morning, sir."

"Thank you, Captain," Fuyutsuki said, saluting back.

"Well, done, son," Hamamoto congratulated. "After all this time, I knew I could trust you."

Tsutomo nodded. "It's my pleasure, sir."

"We don't have much time," Misato said as Shinichi took away the handcuffs from her wrist, before doing the same to Makoto. The other team members tied up the hapless guards with duct tape, binding their legs and wrists.

"Now what we're going to do next?" the old man asked with concern. "I'm sure Ikari will later have Nagisa killed to fulfill the prophecy."

"Me, Natsumi, Trudy, Paul and the rest of my team will have to get Nagisa and Ayanami free," Tsutomo said. "Shin, Makoto and Misato will have to find you and everyone else a place to hide in until the heat is off."

"Okay," Fuyutsuki agreed. "What about the other two Children?" he asked, referring to Asuka and Shinji.

"We'll get them, but once we're safe… I'll have to tell them the truth," Misato said. "But as for Commander Ikari…"

"Today will be his undoing," Fuyutsuki said. "As much as I was his friend and confidant for a very long time, all of you will have to stop him, for he has crossed the line and gone too far."

Misato and Tsutomo blinked, as it was clear that Fuyutsuki has finally decided Ikari's fate.

Fuyutsuki added, "We cannot afford to let the world and of humanity slip into total destruction."

* * *

By then, Kaworu's cubic prison was vibrating heavily, as though a heavy metal band was blasting away with nuclear amplifiers and speakers at full power. His hands formed tightly into fists, his whole body straining against the straps that held him down.

His face, normally serene and radiated confidence, was now distorted into burning wrath as he concentrated more of his will, and whatever calories he had were burned quickly to fuel his AT-Field.

Defying matter completely, Kaworu broke through the restraints and rose from his seat, before he unleashed his AT-Field with a high-pressure shockwave, as though a high-explosive bomb, shattering the cube, bent the columns hard and away from him like plastic straws, and blew out the meter-thick steel door into the hallway.

* * *

"What the hell's going on? What's that explosion? CALL FOR HELP!" the lead technician roared while another picked up the phone but found it disconnected. They were surprised out of their wits when Kaworu "dropped" the psychic "bomb", and now their ears were overwhelmed by the klaxons and the control room was bathed in red light.

"Phone's out! I can't even get the alarm button working!" the second technician yelled, banging the receiver on the console.

"WHAT?" he shouted back while frantically typing commands on the keyboard.

"Hey, look at that!" the third technician chimed, pointing at one of the monitors.

They couldn't see anything on that screen, which showed the hallway engulfed in choking thick dust, before they saw a silhouette walking through it until the figure emerged from the cloud.

For a moment Kaworu, now exuding a glowing aura, stared at the camera attached above the control room door. He was breathing heavily, his cerise eyes boring into the camera, declaring his liberation. He then simply balled his hand into a fist, and the camera was instantly crumpled into bits. The monitors now showed them static.

Now terrified by Kaworu's newly-revealed power, as well as completely blinded, the technicians couldn't leave the safety of the control room.

* * *

As the PA system called out a general alert, Kaworu stood before the chamber door, thick and heavy, and once more his mind felt out for the pins, screws, gears and pistons that held the door in place, He walked closer to touch the door with the palm of his hand, and then he could hear the lock mechanism click in place as it opened the door.

The Fifth Children stepped away to stand clear for the huge door as it swung out on its hinges, before he entered the chamber.

He found Rei unconscious and strapped to the chair, but the hex columns were dead, the electricity supplying them was cut off. With great care Kaworu pulled out the catheter, took off the straps that held Rei down, and with sufficient strength left he carried the girl onto his arms.

Walking out of the ACF, and with klaxons blaring all around him, Kaworu was deep in his thoughts as he glanced at Rei's face, oblivious to the unfolding chaos.

_Your father and my creator has left me no choice except to set my plan in motion, _he reflected. _Forgive me for doing this, my brother, for every beginning… there must also be an end._

Kaworu sighed with regret.

_And now, __as with me, the rest of you will have roles to act on. After all, the world's a stage and we're all players._

* * *

The tremor caught everyone off-guard in the Stockade, just as they were ready to leave, before the alarms exploded noisily and the PA system announced a general emergency.

"Natsumi, what's going on out there?" Tsutomo asked, using the two-way radio again.

"Something blew up at the ACF," Natsumi replied. "The video feed's dead, so no visual, but the operable sensors have detected his AT-Field right now!"

Tsutomo, Misato and everyone else were surprised. "What 'him'? You mean Kaworu?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I think they finally broke out, so I'm sure those guys at the ACF must be scared shitless by now."

They had little to say for the moment, as it was clear that the two Children were getting away, but to where?

"You better come here, while we have to track them down," Tsutomo said.

"Roger that!" Natsumi answered, before letting go of the "send" button on her radio.

Tsutomo then turned his attention to Misato and Fuyutsuki, and said, "Sir, I think you have the option to decide that boy's fate."

"I'm not a god, Captain," Fuyutsuki objected. "I find it distasteful to hold the power of life and death."

"But we're not sure if he's still on our side," Tsutomo pleaded. "It brings us no other choice than to kill him. I'm sorry, sir, but it must be done because, who knows, it turns out he's about to do what his masters asked him to do."

For a few seconds Fuyutsuki grimly mulled over that option, before he said, "The decision falls on Shinji to _kill him_."

Tsutomo blinked. "That's it, sir?"

Fuyutsuki nodded before he turned his attention to Misato. "You'll have to get them ready, Colonel."

At first, misato shook her head, but then saluted. "Yes, sir," she said, sadness tinged in her voice, before running off with Makoto, on their way to the BOQ.

* * *

At the same time, Shinji and Asuka were both awakened by the cacophony, prompting them to get out of bed and take a peek outside, wondering what was going on.

"An Angel attack?" Asuka questioned, blinking.

Shinji turned to her and stared with unsure eyes, for he realized what he could be up against in the coming minutes, and he also had an icy feeling in his veins. This worried Asuka, fearing that Shinji could be relapsing once again.

"What's wrong? Why are you afraid?" Asuka demanded, shaking his shoulders.

"No… It can't be," the young man whispered. "It can't be _now_."

* * *

The shock of the explosion also roused Gendo Ikari from his nap. He then got up from his bed, put on shoes and wore his glasses, before carefully stepping over books and other objects fallen from the shelves to fetch a can of coffee in the kitchenette. Half a minute later, the sirens wailed across the complex, and surely in no time they'll be summoning him to the command bridge, to witness the end of Kaworu Nagisa.

_It's happening__ now, _he thought, clearly pleased as he opened the can, before the telephone rang. _Just as planned._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Sorry if I've been distracted as usual, but once again I delivered. Now for a few things:

(1) Rei's dream was inspired by the Tanabata story (you can look it up on Wikipedia). (2) the design of the Angel Containment Facility was based on a scene in Rebuild 2.22, except for a few alterations of my own; (3) Kaworu's escape, as well as the Stockade jailbreak, were also inspired by scenes from the movies _The Hulk_ (the Ang Lee version) and, of course, _Avatar_.

In the next chapter, and with three remaining before the end of this season, Shinji will soon be confronting Kaworu, as their actions will make the difference between salvation and annihilation.

As usual, I'm welcome for any comments or criticisms. Thank you and good morning.


	38. The Breaking

_It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle._

- Sun Tzu, ancient Chinese strategist

_Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love. _

- John le Carre, novelist

* * *

At the threshold of the door, Asuka held Shinji by the shoulders, worried that the young man was completely shaken and could be relapsing back to his former self. She could see his fear and disbelief in his eyes, and already one of his hands was shaking.

"What's wrong? Why are you afraid?" Asuka demanded, shaking his shoulders.

Shinji couldn't speak at first, but then he took much willpower to answer the girl.

"No… It can't be," the young man whispered. "It can't be _now_."

Asuka was taken aback. "What do you mean? Why?" she asked aloud.

Instead his mind was flashing back to every moment he had with Kaworu; every time they talked and he brought up the question of his background, the Fifth Children was trying to dodge the subject, preferring to use the story that he was brought up as an orphan to a professor, and then trained to become one of the Eva pilots.

Kaworu was too good to be true, and too good to be better than any of them, and yet…

He then thought of the time they spent at the public baths, talking about morality and personal will and eventually his weaknesses.

"Is it true," Shinji said, "that you keep your friends close, and your enemies much closer?"

Asuka nodded. "Yes, that was said to be from Sun Tzu yet it's _not_, but why say about that? Where did you pick that up?"

"I heard about it somewhere… probably from some TV show, but I remember it now."

"Why?"

Shinji sighed and he closed his eyes hard, as if anguished. "Kaworu was so close to us, right? Maybe too close that… God, I don't understand why," he whispered before staring right at Asuka. "Because I had this dream... No, it's really a nightmare of sorts."

Asuka frowned, wondering what was wrong with him.

"I dreamed that… I killed Kaworu," Shinji said, before he began to shed tears. "I killed him because he was an Angel."

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 38: THE BREAKING  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/24/2011 5:07 am / 7/26/2011 8:12 pm

* * *

Somewhere in the Geofront, Kaworu and Rei were in a large, dimly-lit and croweded storage room that apparently seen little human activity, as evidenced by stacks of boxes festooned with cobwebs.

Rei was lying on the floor when Kaworu tapped her cheek repeatedly. It was more than a half-hour since they escaped the prison called the Angel Containment Facility.

"Wake up," Kaworu whispered, trying to bring her around.

The girl's eyelids fluttered at first, trying to squint as her eyes adjusted to the light.

"Where am I?" Rei said in a low tone as Kaworu propped her up with his hands to her back to sit upright. She was still wearing the white shirt that she put on after they made love.

"I'm sorry but we have to hide," he said. "I managed to get ourselves out."

Rei blinked. "How?" she asked, but then quickly knew why. "You used your AT-Field."

Kaworu rubbed his temples, as if to emphasize that he had a splitting headache. "Those poles nearly killed me," he said. "I mean, those rotating columns gave me a nasty headache."

"Those were Hex Columns."

Kaworu frowned as he sat down on the floor. "Hex Columns?"

"Yes," Rei answered. "They were intended to neutralize any form or generation of the AT-Field."

"I see," Kaworu said, nodding. "Do you want some tea?" he offered, pointing at a dozen cans of tea just a foot away from them.

"Thank you," Rei answered, before he reached out to pick up and opened the can. He then gave the drink to her, and the can was still warm, having been purloined from a vending machine a few minutes ago.

Only then Rei could now hear the distant screeching of the alarms. "What's happening?" she asked before drinking.

"We tripped the alarms, I'm afraid," Kaworu said.

"Before the Commander put me to sleep again," Rei said, nursing her drink, "I argued with him, told him that we'll be putting an end to his plan."

"And of the Committee," Kaworu added. "He's eagerly waiting for this to happen, so what did you say to him?"

Rei looked at Kaworu. "I said he abused us, and by leaving him behind he gave Shinji much suffering and therefore my brother lost faith in him. I did not regret everything I threw back at him… But, what about you?" she asked, suddenly remembering Kaworu's fate.

"Now today's the time, I have my own plans," Kaworu said. "I'm hoping it's going to work for all of us."

The First Children now looked concerned.

"Don't worry much," Kaworu reassured her. "We need to move fast."

Rei slowly stood up. "Where to?"

"To the launch cages."

* * *

"I dreamed that I was piloting Eva, and I caught him," Shinji said to Asuka, as they sat on the bed. "He was in her hands, about to crush him, when he spoke of something yet I couldn't hear any words. I tried to talk, but it seems he couldn't hear either."

"And then?" Asuka questioned.

"Before I could react I watched Kaworu being crushed, and that's when I woke up to hear all this noise right now."

"No," Asuka said. "You can make it _not_ happen."

Shinji was surprised at her change of heart. "Why?"

"I have much to owe him, even if… even if he could be our enemy. Maybe he's just bluffing and baiting your crazy father," Asuka said before letting out a sad chuckle. "Maybe he's testing you."

"I'm not going to see him die this time," Shinji avowed but unexpectedly they saw Misato and her other companions, including Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, barge into the room, urgency marked on their faces.

"Shinji!" Misato yelled. "Get yourself ready!"

The young man stood up, and with his face marked in anger, he answered, "For what? To kill Kaworu? No!"

Without hesitation Misato spun Shinji around and pinned his back to the wall. "You will have to do it!"

"I'm not!" Shinji retorted. "LET HIM LIVE!"

Angered, Misato slapped Shinji across the face, her audience aghast, and she angrily said, "Do you know what he's going to do? What if we're all wrong about our assumptions about Kaworu? What if he's going to do it for real? And how did you know he's an Angel?"

Shinji was in a rage. "Because I dreamed that I killed him, that's why I don't want to, and I'm not going to follow Father's orders!"

"Forget your father, he's on left field, he started all this shit!" Misato objected. "What you have to do right now brings you and I without any other choice. If he comes in contact with Adam, then that's it, game's over and we're all dead!"

With that last word striking him like a bomb, Shinji stopped struggling as everyone was nervously watching this tableau. He then managed a hard swallow; it was déjà vu to him, just like the first time he was asked to ride Unit-01 on his first day.

"I'm sorry if I have to tell this to you, and am bringing you hard," Misato said, "but even if he's our friend, you and Asuka will have to get him before he could do anything bad; you two are the only ones left to operate the Evas to deal with his AT-Field."

"You mean he betrayed us?" Shinji asked.

Asuka looked distraught, and Misato didn't answer, as if suddenly having a fit of self-examination.

"Tell me," Shinji whispered. "What's going on? What's happening?"

"You see… Your father caught them a few hours ago and put them in some chamber of sorts, and then arrested scores of others he thought were rebelling against him."

Shinji blinked. "Who got arrested?"

"The Sub-Commander, Director Hamamoto, Doctor Akagi and some others," Misato said, as Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko and Hamamoto acknowledged the fact with respective nods. "I was to be caught as well," she added, "but somehow we managed to sneak in and get them out, and just then we now have this red alert."

Misato relaxed her grip on Shinji's shoulder.

"Look," she said. "I'm very concerned about you being hurt about the truth, but as I said before, we have no choice but to put him down. You have to set aside your sentimentality, and you also have to bring yourself to the reality of the situation we're facing."

"But…" Shinji trailed away.

"There comes a time that you'll have to make decisions on your own," she said, "and this is the moment you have to confront it."

"So I'm in the spotlight, right?"

Asuka nodded, remembering the moment she told him that he was the center of all of this, and that everyone was counting on him.

Shinji shook his head, as though the burden of responsibility has ultimately fell upon his shoulder, and he sighed.

"Maybe I'll try to talk him out," Shinji said. "You know… it doesn't have to end like this, and I don't have to pilot Unit One."

"You can't underestimate him," Misato responded. "We've seen this too many times and sometimes you guys got creamed in the process, so we can't be naïve this time. Think about it."

A moment passed without any more words said, before Shinji nodded.

"All right," he decided in a low voice. "I'm hurt, I'm sad, I'm angry, but you're right, I have no other option but to face him. However, should he dies in my hands, I'll remember for the rest of my life for what I did to him… but I'll never gain joy from it because I have to kill a friend... no, a brother."

Slowly Misato wrapped Shinji in her arms' embrace and whispered, "You'll not be alone in deciding that; I'll be responsible for his fate as much as you are."

Just then Misato's radio, attached to her waist with a clip, crackled to life. "Misato, do you copy?" Tsutomo asked. "We're now at the ACF."

The woman disengaged, took the radio and pressed the Talk button to speak. "Roger, I copy. What's up?"

"Nagisa and Ayanami's gone," he said, "and it appears he managed to blow his way out, free the girl, and of course, we found the techs in the control room. They're scared shitless."

"I see," Misato acknowledged. "Can you guys try to track them down?"

"Roger that, we'll do," Tsutomo said. "But we're not alone because the other security teams are scouring every floor, and those kids will be surely trying to dodge them."

"Anything else?"

"Nope, but I'll try to keep you updated as we go."

"Thanks," Misato said before she clipped the radio back in and turned her attention back to Shinji and Asuka, who were still waiting for her word. "Have you guys made up your minds?"

"We'll do it," Shinji answered, as Asuka agreed with a nod.

Misato then turned to Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko and Hamamoto, and said, "The Children and I will go to the launch cages, while Morisato will get you all to safety, sir."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "It's your call, Colonel. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir," she said, before saluting and then they left.

* * *

Back at the SEELE staging area in Siberia, Keel and the rest of the Committee were monitoring events at their command center, after one of the operators reported a massive outburst of AT-Field energy, detected by a passing reconnaissance satellite's sensors some 15,000 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.

"So it's happening," Evgenyi said to Keel as they watched operators scurry about, exchanging notes and figures, and some of their eyes glued to their monitors.

"Yes, according to plan," Keel answered, hands behind his back. He was also just as pleased as his archenemy. "Whatever he does, eventually we'll be getting the desired goal as we wanted, pieces falling into place."

"I wonder what Sanderson is doing right now," Evgenyi spoke, thinking of the mole. "I guess he'll be okay now with the heat off him, but this is also the right moment for him to cripple the base."

"He'll succeed," Keel said. "I'm sure he'll finish his mission objectives as ordered."

"And what about the Second Children? He should not forget that, so why place so much faith in him?"

"A tenacious man he is, Sanderson will do whatever it takes to get close and kill her without hesitation, and I trust his judgment."

Evgenyi nodded in agreement.

* * *

At around the same moment Sanderson was on his own; he broke off from his group with an excuse that he had to return to get a forgotten piece of personal equipment.

With the chaos unfolding, Sanderson felt it was a good opportunity to bring out the detonator, yet as he stepped into the threshold of the Eva launch cages, and gazed at the giants sitting in vast quantities of water-based liquid coolant, he needed to do one more thing.

The mole whipped out his pistol from the holster and affixed a sound suppressor, before checking the weapon again, including the magazine, and then pulled the slide.

Satisfied with the functionality of both weapon and detonator, he'll have to wait by camping behind a stack of boxes.

* * *

Spurred by the red alert, security troopers were now everywhere, armed to the teeth, swarming every passageway and hall, searching every room and asking questions, demanding where the fugitives have gone.

In the Stockade, one team found the personnel hogtied, and when they took off the tape off the mouth of one of them, he babbled about Katsuragi and Kanzaki freeing the prisoners. The team leader radioed back to Morrissey, who then became infuriated. To add insult to injury, another team told him that Kaworu and Rei had escaped the ACF.

"Find them!" he ordered. "I also need a team to secure the Command Center!"

"Yes, we're dispatching another there, sir," the dispatcher said calmly, trying not to be fazed by the man's rage.

* * *

Rei and Kaworu were running this time through the corridor, making their way to the launch cages, when they were surprised by a large contingent of troopers, who were just as astonished by their presence.

"It's them!" a lieutenant barked. "Stop those kids!"

Without hesitating, the platoon rushed towards them with truncheons, shields and stun guns, but Kaworu clenched his fists and said to Rei, "Go behind me!"

The girl obeyed, and then Kaworu unleashed an AT-Field shockwave which somehow slammed onto the soldiers' chests like being struck with a baseball bat, lifted them off their feet and sent them flying across the room, crashing into walls. Their weapons and helmets clattered on the floor as they slumped, barely conscious and moaning as the couple weaved around them.

Kaworu looked up at the sign ahead of him; the launch cages were about 200 meters to the left.

"Let's go this way!" he exclaimed, pulling Rei with him by the wrist.

* * *

Gendo arrived at the Command Center, unperturbed by the ongoing bedlam, which at the moment bridge staffers were frantically going to and fro, exchanging information, relaying bits and pieces of data, trying to coordinate security teams on the go.

"Sir," one of the operators at a nearby console said. "They've pinpointed Nagisa and Ayanami, heading towards the launch cages. Shall we lock down that sector?" He was referring to the eight-inch emergency lockdown doors that were used to close down areas to contain nuclear, biological and chemical outbreaks.

"Do not deploy unless I say so," Gendo said as he stood behind the man's seat. "Let them. Tell those teams finding those Children not to interfere."

The operator was surprised. "But sir—"

Gendo upraised a finger. "I have a plan in mind for those two, but as for the fugitives, where they are?"

"We've located Kanzaki and his team, and he's in pursuit, and already we've deployed two more teams to go after them. Yet we have lost track of Fuyutsuki and Katsuragi."

"They should keep finding them," Gendo said. "Tell them not to shoot unless they're shot at, and they should know their rules of engagement, and who accessed the MAGI this time?" He was talking about the breach in the system in which the security subsystems were momentarily disabled to facilitate Fuyutsuki's escape.

"I'm sorry, sir, but Doctor Odani broke in and disabled the cameras and sensors," the operator answered.

Gendo only managed a murmur.

"We've restored the security subsystems, though," the operator added to reassure him.

"Sir, I finally found Katsuragi and the two other Children," another operator chimed in, as he pressed the key to bring up one of the CCTV feeds on the main screen. "They're also heading to the launch cages."

"Again, do not let any team try to interfere them," Gendo ordered. "Tell Morrissey to double up their efforts to capture Fuyutsuki. We'll deal with Katsuragi afterwards."

* * *

Kaworu pressed a button to open the double doors to the launch cages, and the couple entered, stepping on the walkway that bridged over the immense tanks that held the Evas in place. They looked at both Eva units, unmoving amidst the klaxons and the repeated call of the PA system, before Kaworu turned to Rei, who looked doubtful.

"This is it," he said. "I know you don't want this to happen, and I tried as much as I could to stop it, yet…" He paused to sigh, and added, "I want you to understand that sometimes it's impossible to stop destiny from happening, and it's also impossible to have full control of people and situations. There comes a time that we can't fight the current, and we have to swim along the course instead."

Kaworu slowly held Rei by her shoulders. "If I remember well," she said, "you said it is impossible to stop this happening, but you could change the trajectory."

"That's right," he agreed, and then let out a sober chuckle. "A prophecy can only happen if everything goes as planned, but even the smallest change in the elements involved can alter a plan's outcome."

"What are you going to do now?" Rei asked as Kaworu pivoted to confront Unit-02, the four-eyed crimson-and-gold behemoth staring down on him, and much to the girl's surprise, Kaworu made two steps forward off the edge of the platform and levitated. He then closed his eyes, willed his mind to penetrate deep into the Eva's core and to "talk" with her soul.

"_What is the meaning of this?" Kyoko demanded, the woman surprised to see Kaworu again as she rose on her feet._

"_I need you for one last time," Kaworu said as he stood before her. "It's urgent."_

"_But… You can't do this!" the woman objected, her arms and legs being pulled as if she was a marionette manipulated with strings by a puppeteer. "What are you going to do __to me?"_

"_Don't get angry, I'm not going to have you hurt," Kaworu assured. "It's for a while, and then it's over."_

_Kyoko yelled, "WHAT?"_

_Kaworu shook his head. "Trust me on this for now, Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu," he answered, "because someday your daughter and her boyfriend will understand the significance of my final task, so you'll have to go along with me."_

"_You're crazy__!" Kyoko muttered._

"_One man's craziness is another man's __courage," Kaworu replied. "I have to do this to test Shinji."_

_Kyoko blinked twice, taken aback. "A test?"_

"_That's right, Doctor."_

* * *

Just as they finally came into the sanctum sanctorum of the Evas, Misato, Shinji and Asuka were surprised to see Unit-02 breaking out of her cage, bending and snapping the restraints away from her, hoses and probes being pulled out, before rising from the vat of coolant by climbing up, getting a toehold on the cracks and crevices. Alongside with her was Kaworu, levitating hundreds of feet over their heads; Rei simply stood there on the walkway, watching as the technicians and mechanics came out of their sleeping quarters to see and be stupefied that one of their wards went out for a walk with only a Terminal Plug stuck into her.

"KAWORU NAGISA!" Misato yelled as she whipped out her pistol and aimed at him. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? GET BACK HERE!"

"I can't! You can't shoot me either!" Kaworu answered back.

Misato gritted her teeth; it was too late as the other Children watched both Eva and Angel motioned towards to an open shaft, before leaping in. She then turned to Shinji and ordered, "Go get him."

"But…" Shinji mumbled, still in shock along with Asuka, who was astonished as a driver who'd just witnessed a carjack on her Ferrari.

"Damn it," Misato snarled as she spun around. "You'd better get into the Eva and—"

They heard the click of a pistol's hammer being pulled, and turned to see that Sanderson, standing behind Asuka, now has the muzzle of his suppressor touching the girl's right temple. The girl couldn't move an inch, knowing all too well that she's now a hostage, and if she tried to resist, he'll put her out with a nine-millimeter slug into her brain.

"There's a good reason someone said there can be a crisis _and_ an opportunity, Colonel," he said, grinning calmly as he brought out the detonator for them to see. "It took us long and hard to get this far, and now, she's here, so drop your weapon."

"What the…" Misato mumbled.

* * *

With complete urgency and unaware that a couple of security teams were going after them, Tsutomo, Natsumi and half his team were running through the corridor, towards the launch cages when he heard the radio net chatter on his walkie-talkie, saying about Unit-02 on the loose and a hostage situation involving Asuka and the mole.

"Chrissakes," he muttered. "Shit's happening!"

Natsumi looked surprised. "Pardon me?"

"What?" one of his men with the nametag Sasaki asked as he sprinted with his MP5 juggling in his hands.

"I'd say we have an Eva on the loose, and we also have a hostage situation! Safeties off and ROE's on, guys!" he barked, ROE being the acronym for Rules of Engagement. They were now less than a hundred yards to the launch cages.

"Who?" Sasaki questioned.

"The Second Children has a gun to her head! That means we have our fucking mole! Kendall!"

"Sir!" the man named Kendall responded; the ex-Marine sniper had a Heckler and Koch MSG90A1 sniper rifle strapped to his back, apart from gripping the FN90 bullpup submachine gun in his hands.

"I want you to position yourself right above the cages and try to get a clear shot, okay?" Tsutomo said.

"Affirmative, Captain!" Kendall answered.

* * *

"Like that boy," Sanderson said, referring to Kaworu as Misato set down her pistol on the platform deck, "I'm also a messenger, and I've been sent here to make sure the Committee has a clear path for them to walk on."

"You…" Misato said, clenching her teeth in anger, yet helpless to respond.

"I believe in anything they believed in," Sanderson went on, as he toyed the detonator in his hand, "because life on Earth is nothing but brief, and an individual is merely an insignificant cog in a machine. For that reason the Committee placed me here so that by the time Instrumentality comes I have no pain to feel, no hardship, but rather we can all be gods."

Unaware of her presence, Sanderson didn't know that Rei was bent over, fingering a six-inch pipe wrench she found in an open toolbox, carefully taking hold of it as if poised to strike. Misato noticed this, but decided not to react, preferring to go with Sanderson's flow as if nothing happened.

"You're full of shit," Misato retorted.

"And you can't stop us, either," Sanderson replied. "Everything's in motion as we speak."

Despite the weight of the wrench, Rei hefted it with both hands as she stood up, poised herself as if ready to throw the Spear of Longinus, and with all of her strength threw the wrench at Sanderson.

The wrench struck him in the head, momentarily causing him to utter a cry and wobbled on his feet, stunned. Taking advantage of this lapse, Asuka swung around and elbowed Sanderson's chest, before kicking him away with a roundhouse to his solar plexus.

But Sanderson still had the pistol as he flailed, with the finger on the trigger and Asuka in his sights, he raged, "Fuck it, you're dead!"

The mole pressed the detonator button and pulled the trigger at the same time.

* * *

The satellite station was the first to go, as explosives planted at the base of the largest parabolic antenna blew up, flinging bits and pieces of plastic and metal, shrapnel ripping out the electronics and wires.

Next was the massive Bakelite pumping station, two of the bombs knocking out the turbopumps, the state phase modulator and the circuit box; within ten seconds after the explosion, Bakelite leaked and flooded the chamber.

The gun director system installed on the hillside became another victim, plastique tearing out the base of this tower-mounted system, which served to direct gun and missile batteries with targeting information from its array of sensors and optics. Tottering for a moment, the tower then fell to its side and crashed into the ground.

Finally and aboveground, two of the circuit boxes, belonging to the largest gates leading to the Geofront, were blasted into pieces, thus rendering the gates inoperable and cannot be closed.

* * *

Sanderson thought he got her as he pulled the trigger, but instead he yelled as a bullet struck the slide of his pistol, ruining his aim and the weapon flew out of his hand, landed into the drink and sank out of sight; the bullet veered off, harmlessly embedding itself into an empty drum about fifty yards away.

He didn't know that Sergeant Aaron Kendall, lying prone on the upper platform above them and hidden behind the shadows, was waiting for Sanderson to do the wrong thing.

"Captain, I got his gun but I think he blew up something," Kendall said through the throat mike as he thought he felt several tremors rocking the Geofront. "Shit, I can't get a clear shot," he muttered.

"Come again?" Tsutomo blurted back.

Peering through the Tasco scope attached onto his rifle, Kendall then saw Misato lunge at Sanderson and the two crashed onto the walkway, before they began exchanging blows.

"That fucker blew up something with a detonator of sorts, and now the Colonel's trying to beat the hell out of the bastard!"

"That's it, I'm coming!" Tsutomo exclaimed.

* * *

After he received two punches from Misato, one in the stomach and another on the jaw, Sanderson retaliated by throwing a hard straight into her chest, causing the woman to reel back before he kicked her to the stomach.

On all fours, Misato coughed and wheezed, and Sanderson was poised to kick her again when Tsutomo grabbed him by the shoulders and punched twice in the ribs.

The two men traded punches and kicks, until the mole grabbed his arm and was about to throw him off the walkway when Misato pulled him back and in a sideways motion slammed him back to the walkway.

"Sonofabitch!" Misato yelled as she landed two more punches into Sanderson's face, adrenaline flowing in her bloodstream and driving her thrice the fury. Unfazed, the mole's arms shot up and grabbed her throat, attempting to choke her down, before he felt Tsutomo going for him again and he swung his right arm and planted an elbow to the agent's face.

With Tsutomo keeping Sanderson preoccupied as they struggled, Misato dropped onto her knees and tried to get her breath back. Only then she saw the detonator that the mole had dropped, and she picked it up.

"Shit," she cursed as it dawned upon her that the mole pushed the button, causing her to wonder what he blew up at the same time he was about to fire a shot at Asuka, who now stood there with Shinji, protecting the girl by having her hide behind him.

"Hey kids!" Misato yelled. "You guys go first!"

"What?" Shinji responded loudly.

"Go get yourself ready to launch!"

Shinji was distraught, holding Asuka tightly by the wrist. "What about you?"

Misato pointed her finger at Unit-01. "Damn it, just go! That's an order and I'm sure there's a crew waiting for you to prep! We'll deal with this fucking bastard!"

Shinji and Asuka looked at each other for a moment, before they nodded. No time to waste, not until all of this was over, but just as they were about to leave, the couple was shocked to see Rei levitating on her own, moving across the lake of coolant, weaving through the wreckage of what was left of Unit-02's restraint frame.

"W… What the hell?" Asuka stammered in shock.

"Where you're going?" Shinji called out to Rei, who pivoted to face the boy.

"Like you, I must deal with him," the girl said before she moved on.

Shinji reached out with his right arm and exclaimed, "But… Wait!"

"I will explain later," she said before dropping down into the vast maw of the shaft leading all the way to Terminal Dogma; at the same time the PA system now called for a general evacuation of the complex.

Without expecting her, Natsumi swung Shinji around and said, "C'mon, you don't want to stand around here while the world falls apart, right?"

* * *

With the explosions, activity at the Command Center redoubled as reports filtered in, demanding orders, queries and other needed information:

"The satellite station's down!"  
"Gate 3 inoperable! It's been blown to pieces, and we can't close it!"  
"The Bakelite pumping station's been struck!"  
"We need backup! Fire's broke out down here!"  
"I have six injured in the lab, need some medics on the double!"

At the upper tier of the command bridge, Gendo watched as events unfolded before him, knowing that in any way his plans were coming to fruition.

"Sir, we have a reading at the launch cages," an operator reported to Gendo, who simply sat behind his desk, palms propped before his face. "We're detecting two distinct Angel emission patterns in that vicinity. Should we shut the shaft bulkheads tight?"

"Shut them," Gendo ordered, "Anything to give the Third Children more time to spare."

"We have another situation in the launch cages," a second operator added, bringing up another CCTV feed onto the main screen, which showed Misato and Tsutomo trying to neutralize Sanderson.

"So, this is the mole they're talking about," Gendo said. "Let them do their business."

"And Unit One's about to launch, sir," the operator spoke, adding another feed showing Shinji boarding the Entry Plug.

_Once again,_ Gendo told himself with satisfaction, _everything is working according to plan._

* * *

With Unit-02 now levitating with him, Kaworu looked downward as massive bulkheads shuttered close and tight, but he shook his head, watching the Eva's feet land on the first bulkhead she encountered, stomped hard until the sandwiched sheet of armor cracked and gave way under the strain of the Eva's immense weight.

Meanwhile, hundreds of meters above their heads, Shinji was inside Unit-01, now halfway done with the emergency launch procedures, fully immersed into LCL and wearing headsets on his head. Surprisingly he felt comfortable as the familiar hum and warmth of the Entry Plug enveloped him, as he read off the data on his HUD.

"I'm ready for launch," he reported to Natsumi and the crew chief, both behind a console and doing some final checks while Asuka watched them. "Plug depth's all right at point one-twenty, my systems are green, and sync rate is in the zone!"

Suddenly he wondered where Misato and Tsutomo had gone to along with the assailant, as he couldn't see them at all from this vantage point, and then there was no sign of them on the walkway.

The young man shook his head. _Misato can take care of herself, _he told in his thoughts.

"You're good to go, kid!" Natsumi shouted with a thumbs-up.

"Go grab the cables on the gantry that's at the main shaft!" the crew chief added, pointing at the direction of the shaft, and Shinji could now see a gantry crane right above, its hook swinging back and forth along with an attached harness.

"I copy and I can see it," Shinji answered as the final bolts on the restraints were loosened, the hoses and the main power cord were unplugged, and the framework that held the Eva in place began to part while the coolant in the tank was drained at a fast rate.

"You're on extended power, kid," the crew chief advised, pointing at the external power pack that was attached to the pauldrons. "You're twenty mins max and counting! That's twenty minutes!"

"She's all yours," Natsumi chimed in.

"Okay, thanks!" the young man replied, before holding onto the butterfly handles, glanced at his power meter. He then saw that the tank was now empty, thus allowing him free reign to move, by willing the Eva to walk, and she responded as if a natural extension of Shinji's body and limbs.

'One more thing," Asuka said, taking hold of the radio.

"What?" Shinji demanded.

"You break her, dummy, and I'll break your neck," she sternly warned, referring to her Unit-02.

Shinji nodded. "I know," he acknowledged. "I'll be back."

* * *

Unknown to Shinji and in a sideroom away from Unit-01's cage, Misato was completely dazed and sprawled among the litter of boxes after Sanderson knocked her out with a fist to her abdomen. Right now, with the woman nearly unconscious, Tsutomo was completely focused on the mole as they exchanged blows and checks, making feints and dodges.

_Tough bastard, _he muttered while countering the mole's advances, wondering about Sanderson's unusually resilient stamina even after several beatings. _Where the hell he got his training from?_

The split-second distraction afforded Sanderson the opportunity to charge straight at Tsutomo, and lunged forward to knock the agent down among the piles of cans. He then picked up a meter-length of steel pipe and swung it at Tsutomo, who dodged away to prevent from being struck.

_Two can play this game,_ Tsutomo said, grabbing another length of pipe on the floor, and with both hands and his old kendo skills, he struck and parried Sanderson's blows.

However, to make himself less of a target and deploying the aikido technique of being close to his opponent, Sanderson got hold of Tsutomo's shirt and slammed his forehead into the agent's, landing him on the floor.

The mole picked up the pipe again, and was readying to strike down Tsutomo when the agent kicked out his feet, making the mole land sideways. Tsutomo slowly stood up, and already he was sore in several places, and surely he felt his nose must been broken. He then spat out the blood that was in his mouth, and wiped it away using his sleeves.

But Tsutomo didn't know that Sanderson unsheathed a knife secreted from his belt, and without warning he stabbed forward, forcing the agent to back away, and without realizing it his foot tripped on an unseen toolbox, pitching him downwards.

Now with Tsutomo sprawled over the floor, Sanderson was ready to deliver the coup de grace, retracting his right arm to begin the final swing to stab the agent.

Suddenly Sanderson was writhing on two feet, screaming as he did, and then Tsutomo saw Sasaki holding a stun gun in his hands, giving the mole enough voltage to give him the trots for weeks, until he let go of the trigger and the mole fell down, still wriggling and twitching.

Tsutomo took several breaths, before he got up on his feet and said, "Shit, I thought it was going to be over for me, Sarge."

Staff Sergeant Hiromu Sasaki smiled as he pulled the electrodes out of Sanderson's back. "Yeah, we always watch our backs," he said before Tsutomo's other team members barged into the room and tied up the unconscious mole's wrists, before grabbing him by the shoulders and then dragging him away.

Just then Misato's eyes were now open as she rubbed her temples, prompting Tsutomo to grab her hand and pull the woman onto her feet. "Thanks," she said. "Now, what we should do with that bastard?"

Tsutomo grinned while checking his nose's cartilage; Sanderson almost broke it, causing some bleeding from the wound. "Make him sing, what else?" he suggested.

"Damn right, and where's those kids?" Misato asked, dusting herself off.

"Shinji should be on his way by now, ma'am," Sasaki said. "He's in Unit One, and in hot pursuit. I also saw Asuka with Doctor Odani up at the control platform."

The woman sighed. "I know he'll do the right thing," she said.

* * *

Tethered to the cable as she was lowered by the gantry crane, Shinji stared below to find a glint of light beyond Unit-01's feet; already he was sure that Kaworu and Unit-02 were smashing their way downward. He also saw another point of light halfway there.

It was Rei, her AT-Field at full power as she levitated and descended, following Kaworu.

To make sure, Shinji had Unit-01 bring out her Prog Knife, and readied himself for anything untoward as the melee weapon's blade gave out a pinkish glow.

"You're getting close," the crane operator above him said through the radio. "We're letting out more cable for you."

Shinji nodded without a word, as he remembered the last few days he had with his new friend. Those days, he thought, seem to be an lifetime to him as Kaworu changed his life and how he perceived himself as a person.

Yet it was hard for him to stomach the reality that Kaworu was really an Angel with a mission, ordered to make contact with this entity called Lilith, and such a contact could cause the end of human existence.

He wondered if all that was said in Kaji's secret documents were all true, forewarning them of the inevitable.

If Kaworu was indeed an agent, then who were his masters? Who gave him the orders to do this?

It all boiled down to those men known as the Committee, putting their Human Instrumentality Project to full motion, and it became clear to Shinji that Kaworu was also a sacrifice, destined to die.

Shinji then wondered if his father was watching all this, presumably waiting for him to make the final blow, and then he thought of the nightmare he had shortly being awakened by the klaxons.

In this nightmare, he saw himself sitting in the Entry plug, and right before him Kaworu had Unit-01's hands tightly wrapped around his body, and he tried to talk but words couldn't leave his mouth; he also saw Kaworu speak, but he couldn't hear what he was saying.

He tried to take control of the Eva, but then he helplessly watched as Unit-01 suddenly clenched her fist, instantly reducing Kaworu's body into pulp, and his head popped out and then dropped away.

Only then did Shinji woke up.

Yet this time the nightmare was being reenacted for real, and he feared the inevitable, making his insides turn cold.

"Why?" Shinji whispered his doubts. _"Why it has to be me?"_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** In the last two days, instead of working on my other crossover fic, I decided it best to concentrate on finishing the last three chapters to set the stage for _Blood and Water_, the final season and hence the reinterpretation of End of Eva.

As I have understood, with little much else to do, writing is now the few creative outlets I can have, amidst my personal issues that I have to deal with, including an uneasy life in a difficult household. Yet I don't want my problems affect my writing, and the last time it did there was much time wasted when those hours could've been put to good use.

Regarding this week, it's been unfortunate to hear much loss of life, one involving a songstress whom I don't know much but famous in some way; and another, with almost hundreds more at the hands of a deranged man, which brings us to think hard just how valuable life is, and why it shouldn't be wasted or destroyed, and as much as I have to endure more of life's storms, surely I know that sooner or later there's going to be a silver lining in the clouds.

Anyway, by the time I finish Season Three, I'll have more time to write without being bothered, as I'll be managing my time properly.

Until then, stay tuned and as always, I'm open to constructive comments and criticism.

Thank you and good evening.


	39. A Beautiful Lie

Amidst the ongoing emergency, Misato, Tsutomo and the other members of his team calmly stared down at the still-unconscious Sanderson after they dragged him out of the room.

"So, what's gonna be next for us?" Sasaki asked, still holding his submachine gun.

Tsutomo shrugged. "I suppose we should drag this bastard out of here, put him in the slammer and we'll explain everything even if they'll slap us with whatever that's from the rulebooks."

Just then Asuka came down the stairs from the upper walkway, followed by Natsumi and the crew chief. The girl stood before Misato and said, "What's going to happen next?"

Using her foot, Misato prodded Sanderson's unmoving prone form. "We'd better leave and link up with the Sub-Commander," she said. "Shinji can handle himself, I'm sure of it."

Asuka frowned. "And what about—" she said but was cut off when she was surprised by the unexpected appearance of a hundred or so security troopers surrounding them, their weapons aimed at Misato and Tsutomo's rogue SRT team, laser dots dancing upon their chests and foreheads.

Morrissey walked out from one of the double doors, and exclaimed, "Drop your weapons!"

Without saying a word and only a nod, Tsutomo and his team carefully placed their weapons on the walkway and raised their arms, hands behind their heads.

"All right," Tsutomo said. "You win."

"You, of all people, have disappointed me," Morrissey said, his voice rising with his hands clenched into fists. "What all of you did is an act of treason, conspiracy, sedition, armed provocation, abetting and aiding escape of prisoners, and above all, disregarding orders!"

The pretender then walked towards the group, and with his withering stare singled out Misato, Natsumi and Tsutomo.

"You were such daring heroes yesterday, and then now you did the unthinkable," Morrissey lectured. "Now I ask you: where your loyalties lie with? Where and to whom? Certainly today it's not to Fuyutsuki."

Unknown to Morrissey, the soldiers who kept their weapons aimed at the renegades were having second thoughts; they deferred their loyalty to him because they thought he was the legitimate commanding officer of their department, by dint of Commander Ikari's approval.

But secretly they considered Misato and Tsutomo their personal heroes, professional soldiers they wanted to emulate, accomplishing the impossible that left them in admiration, giving their profession a good reason for respect. Therefore, the idea of shooting at a bunch of warriors worth their salt was unthinkable.

"Arrest them!" Morrissey ordered. "Cuff them and say their rights!"

Not one of those commandoes bothered to move, as they slowly lowered their weapons one by one, flipping their weapons back to safety.

"Damn it, what the bloody hell are you men are waiting for?" Morrissey chided, but just as he turned around to yell yet another order, he saw Hamamoto rushing towards him, coming out of the door, with the other half of Tsutomo's squad following.

"What the—" Morrissey yelped, before the Second Section veteran he replaced abruptly early in the day struck him with an straight punch to the face, and the Brit was knocked out cold on the walkway.

Satisfied with the one-punch, Hamamoto was snorting like a bull out of the pen. He then stared down at Morrissey's prone body, spat out and barked, "Fuck you and your orders, pretender! You're out of the game!"

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 39:A BEAUTIFUL LIE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 7/30/2011 / 7/31/2011 4:04 a7/p7

* * *

Using his psychokinetic abilities inherent in his nature, Kaworu Nagisa hefted thousands of tons of Eva Unit-02, the monstrously-sized weapon within his control, as he commanded her to stomp down on any obstacles thrown in their way; seemingly impregnable sheets of armor bulkhead plating buckled and gave way beneath her weight, like an anvil dropped through thin paper.

As they descended further into the depths of the earth, Kaworu looked up to see Rei coming for him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I must come along with you even to this end," Rei answered.

Kaworu shook his head. "You should've stayed there."

"I cannot," she insisted. "I would rather complement your effort."

"But what about him?" Kaworu questioned as he pointed upward at Shinji and Unit-01, now closing on the trio. "It's supposed to be just between him and me, and this is supposed to be very personal."

"I disagree," Rei objected. "I have my share in this complicity as much as you are, therefore I should be involved because he is my brother."

They then looked downward to see Unit-02 encounter yet another armored bulkhead, a meter thick and forged with aerospace alloys, and proceeded to pound it with her feet, hammering her way down until chunks of it fell off. Only then they were able to go through the hole without a hitch.

"I am sure he is very upset at this," Rei went on. "It would have been better if you told him firsthand of your plans, and what you wanted to happen."

"How he can be made ready for the inevitable," Kaworu countered, "if we couldn't test him and his character? Anytime after this, I'm sure, there will be no peace for NERV, which is why, besides us, Shinji and Asuka stand in the way of their plans… No, I mean, the Committee's plans."

"_You two are such an odd couple, isn't it?" Kyoko chimed in, her voice issuing from the core, communicating by means of telepathy._

"I'll take that as a compliment, Doctor," Kaworu answered.

_Kyoko sighed. "You put me in this uncomfortable spot of yours," she said, "yet I've finally understood what you mean in terms of necessity regarding with my daughter's boyfriend."_

Kaworu nodded. "Go on."

"_The first time he came aboard with my daughter," Kyoko spoke, "he was still an untested character, a young man not sure of his place in this world despite this unimaginably huge responsibility placed on his shoulders. In the five minutes they fought that Angel, I quickly got a feel into his psyche, his loves and hates, and everything that consisted of his personality. This kind of affected his ability to become an effective pilot, because he always had this inner pain that's been caused, not surprisingly, by his father, and I also know what kind of man he was."_

Both Children blinked. "You know Commander Ikari?" Kaworu asked.

"_That's right," Kyoko confirmed, "by way of his wife, who happens to be my best friend ever since she left France, which is why I was involved in this project shortly after Second Impact… and what a character he was... I mean, for the life of me, it struck me as odd that a good girl like her should be involved with that ambitious _die Sau_… er, bastard."_

"Seems that the Commander made enemies almost everywhere," Rei commented as she stared at the center of Unit-02, where the core was implanted. "Yet it is only with Mother that he becomes like putty."

_Kyoko laughed at the analogy. __"Nice one, young woman," she approved. "He's made of ice, conditioned by his past, but surprisingly he thaws out whenever he sees Yui. Indeed, she was his only weakness, and by the way, Rei, is this your first time hearing from me in this way?"_

Rei nodded.

"_Good," Kyoko approved, "because it's clear that Kaworu is probably the best teacher you ever have."_

"Thank you," Rei said.

_The woman in the machine sighed once more. "Talk about star-crossed lovers," she said. "I used to watch that movie, before digging into the actual book itself afterwards, thinking that my ex would like to hear me talking about Shakespeare."_

"How did you know I liked that movie?" Kaworu asked.

"_Nice coincidence," Kyoko said, before she laughed. "You two are acting out something bigger than any drama, and then Shakespeare saying about the world as a stage rings true. We're all in this stage, each of us are players__, while the spotlight's trained on us as we recite our lines."_

"You're correct," Kaworu agreed.

"_On the other hand, you two are a Tanabata ideal, that is, lovers separated by a distance and fate. It's only now that both of you are together."_

"That was what I dreamed of," Rei said. "Ikari blew up the bridge that was to bring us together."

_Kyoko shook her head. __"He will do anything to bring Yui back, no matter how much the cost, and in the process I have paid my life in participating in his devilish enterprise."_

"I have fought with him, and if he does so without changing himself first," Rei replied, "I will fight him again to deny his wish."

* * *

Closing in with less than two hundred meters and counting, Shinji had a few thoughts left to spare.

_Is this what you wanted to do? What have you done now? Why do you have to do this?_

Shinji clenched his teeth, and decided to talk, so his eye trained at an icon to the right of the HUD, selected the command to turn on the external speaker system installed in Unit-01 and yelled, "Why did you lie to me? WHY BETRAY ME?"

The outburst disrupted the trio, and both Children looked up to see Shinji and Unit-01 faced Unit-02.

"I've been waiting for you," Kaworu said, but Rei suddenly looked doubtful.

"For what?" Shinji questioned. "Damn it, you befriended me, I gave you my trust, I thought you much as a brother I should've had, I thought you understood me, and now WHY DOES IT HAVE TO COME TO THIS? WHY?"

Just then, without warning Unit-02 unsheathed and grabbed her Prog Knife, ready to attack.

Shinji then stared at Rei and said, "Ayanami, why are you a part of this?"

"I have a part to play, for I have become involved as much as he is," Rei admitted.

"He's an Angel, for God's sake!" Shinji talked back. "You're supposed to stop him!"

"I cannot," Rei objected. "Because I love him, even if he is an Angel."

Shinji shuddered and then and questioned, "How it can be? Have you planned this with him?"

However, before he could bring about another outburst, Unit-02 swung her knife-armed hand to strike at Unit-01, but the other Eva intercepted and parried the blow, the two blades sparking as they came in contact.

Shinji's teeth gritted, trying to keep the blade away and then he yelled, "I want this to STOP! I don't want this! Kaworu, for God's sake, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?"

Kaworu shook his head and remarked, "_Evae, factae de Adamo_, beings detested by humans. Yet I still wonder why do you have to use them for your survival."

"They're supposed to stop the likes of you," Shinji replied as he struggled, "and answer the damned question: WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME?"

"Because I don't want you to hear about my bad side," Kaworu admitted. "I'm made in the same way the Evas are; I'm being _natus de Adamo, _and had this Eva have no soul, I can unite with her."

As though infused with more power, Unit-02 began to exert extra effort to overwhelm Unit-01, forcing Shinji to lurch forward, pressing his handles to the limit, before Unit-01's blade was forced to the left and struck Kaworu's AT-Field, which produced an hexagonal ripple.

"You have an AT-Field!" Shinji exclaimed.

Kaworu nodded. "That's right," he agreed. "That's what you humans refer to, as this is the holy region that anyone shouldn't touch, and this is the light of the mind. You lilin should be aware of that, and the AT-Field is the wall of the mind that everyone possesses."

Shinji blinked. "What?"

His hesitation, however, brought Unit-02 to stab Unit-01 in the left shoulder, causing the Third Children to howl in pain.

At that point, Rei began to shed tears.

* * *

With Morrissey tied up and heaped with Sanderson, and as Hamamoto went about grouping his men together for the next plan, Misato turned to Natsumi and Makoto, who were monitoring events from her laptop.

"Oh, damn," Natsumi muttered. "They cleared several now, and closing to the last level."

"What else we have to do next?" Makoto asked as he looked up and faced Misato.

Misato sighed. "Should we lose contact with Shinji…"

The junior officer ran a hand through his hair. "I understand what you mean," he said in a morose tone. "This place has been rigged to go off just in case shit hits the fan."

"I'm sorry," Misato apologized.

Instead Makoto smiled. "No, never mind… at least we're all in the same boat."

Natsumi nodded, but just as she was about to say another word, Tsutomo ran up to them and asked, "Is it all right if we have to follow them down?"

The others blinked. "What?" Misato questioned.

"We have to go there, and mop up just in case Shinji wins," Tsutomo said, pointing his hand downward.

Misato pondered for a moment, and then answered, "All right, but you guys are ready?"

Tsutomo nodded. "Damned right we are."

"HEY!" Natsumi yelled, interrupting them all. "Look at that!" she exclaimed, pointing at the laptop's screen.

Misato's eyes twitched. "What?"

"One of them produced an off-the-scale AT-Field," Natsumi reported. "I'm sure that's Rei, and there's nothing for us to see anymore: light waves, radio, EM emissions, _nada_. We're effectively blind for the duration."

"Oh, shit," Misato cursed, and motioned to Tsutomo to get ready to go, before she faced the cluster of soldiers gathered around Hamamoto. "Chief, I suppose that I must borrow your men," she said.

"To go down there?" Hamamoto questioned.

"Yeah!" Misato replied.

"Permission granted, Colonel," the old man agreed. "Take some of them to come with you, instead, as I need the other half to deal with Ikari."

"But what about me?" Asuka chimed in. She was standing around, doing nothing at all. "I'm also involved in this morass, right?"

Misato smiled. "Come on, then," she said, before threw a salute at Hamamoto and said, "Thanks again, sir."

"Go get 'em," Hamamoto muttered as he watched Misato, Asuka, Tsutomo and other troopers rushed back into the corridor, on their way to serve as the cavalry to do the save at the last minute.

* * *

With one last stroke and freeing herself of the lanyard that tethered her to the crane, Unit-01 dropped upon Unit-02, smashed through the last bulkhead and then made a huge splash on the lake of LCL that was in the center of Terminal Dogma.

"_I don't believe your nerve, young man," Kyoko muttered, as she found herself as an unwanted passenger in Unit-02, the Eva struggling against her officemate. "Where the hell are you two going this time?"_

"To there," Kaworu said as he and Rei walked the last few hundred meters to the door leading into the chamber containing Lilith.

"_Schiessekopf, you're not kidding, don't you?" Kyoko questioned._

Kaworu nodded. "It's just part of the plan, so hang on right there," he said before turning to Rei, who was walking with him. "It has to be done," he added.

"Is it necessary that my brother be hurt in such a way?" Rei doubted as they mounted the steel stairs leading to the chamber.

"We don't have much of a choice, but it's also another test," Kaworu replied once they confronted the steel door that kept out most intruders but only a select personages; a larger, massive door was besides it, built out of the strongest alloys possible, more than 80 meters tall and six meters thick, enough to fit an Eva to come inside.

Using telekinesis once more, Kaworu jimmied the lock internally, and the door slid open, before they walked into the chamber, to look and see Lilith in her full visage.

A grotesque creature, pale colored, and still dripping with LCL, Lilith was nailed to a primer-painted steel cross that was her prison for years. Her other half now has slowly growing legs extending out of her main body.

Seemingly lifeless, her multi-eyed mask stared down at the Children, as they walked closer and along the pool's edge.

* * *

Left behind, Shinji and Unit-01 was still locked in combat, trying to get Unit-02 off from them. "Kaworu!" he gasped, landing more blows at the renegade opponent. "Come back here!"

One hit made Unit-02 to loosen its grip on the Prog Knife's handle, dropping it onto the ground. But that Eva didn't gave up and gathered to jump upon Unit-01 with her remaining emergency energy supplies.

"ARRRGH! That does it!" Shinji yelled before he threw at the red Eva's head the hardest punch he could muster by thought, and the heavy concussion finally shortened the antagonist's battery.

Without missing a beat, Unit-01 kicked away her inert enemy, got up on two feet and went after Kaworu.

* * *

With Rei besides him, Kaworu stared up at Lilith and said, "So, this is her, after all."

"Yes," Rei answered.

"She is different," Kaworu remarked. "Adam was our mother being, and those born from Adam will have to return to once more, even at the risk of annihilating all of humanity."

The Fifth Children turned to Rei and added, "I wasn't supposed to do this, I made my promise but I really lied to everyone, even to you."

The girl was shedding tears silently, but Kaworu gently brushed her cheeks with his fingers to wipe them away.

"Don't worry about me, but I have something in mind," he said. "I wanted to do something in such a way that we can all win."

"Are you going to merge with Lilith?" Rei asked.

But without answering Kaworu levitated upward, rising until he was level with Lilith's face, hovering over the immense pool of LCL that she produced constantly.

"You'll wait and see," he finally said, before they turned around to see the massive steel door being cut-welded and then Unit-01 kicked it in and stepped inside, Prog Knife in hand, making huge splashes as she waded into the lake.

"I'm going to stop you myself!" Shinji declared as Kaworu, without making a struggle or evading away, allowed the purple Eva to wrap her hands around him, instantly imprisoning the Angel completely.

"Thank you," Kaworu said, smiling at the otherwise confused Shinji. "I wished you to keep Unit Two, or I would've lived with her."

"I couldn't quite understand you," Shinji replied, feeling anguished. "You did nothing but you gave me this much trouble, and… what do you want?"

Kaworu sighed in resignation, and said, "If I die, only then I can be considered free, and you can have the chance to do more."

"Please," Shinji said. "I gave you everything for you to understand me, and then… Why do you have to risk our friendship to lead me all the way to this end?"

"I'm sorry if I lied to you," Kaworu replied. "I lied because you wouldn't want to hear the truth about me and my nature, my mission and my objective."

Shinji couldn't say another word.

"But that's all changed," Kaworu went on. "The thing is, I want you to understand yourself, and you're supposed to know yourself, your strengths that have to be focused on, while your weaknesses must be dealt with and remedied."

The Fifth Children looked down to see Rei, now on her knees and crying silently.

"You see, you do have potential to save this world we all exist in, whether you like it or not," Kaworu continued. "The problem is that you're too reluctant to face the facts."

"No, I'm ready," Shinji said. "Yet this isn't what I wanted, or I expected."

"Then you were quite mistaken in assuming that Angels are not of this world," Kaworu said, "and thus be destroyed. To assume is a mistake, and to not knowing your enemy without knowing yourself as well could spell the end of everything that you hold dear to."

The Third Children sighed, as he relaxed his grip on Kaworu. "I trusted you," he said, "I learned a few things from you, I understood what it takes to live and fight, yet… In the end you betrayed my trust, and everyone else's."

"But why you're letting me go a bit?" Kaworu asked, noticing that Unit-01 gave less pressure on his body.

"I'm supposed to kill you, but… I feel I just can't do it," Shinji reluctantly said.

"You have only one choice, my brother," Kaworu said, his eyes narrowing. "You'll have to kill me, or risk yourself destroying the human race. The life that escapes being annihilated, and obtains the future should be the one left standing."

Shinji said nothing.

"All of you deserve to exist onward," Kaworu continued. "So, at least I was able to enjoy two rewards in this end."

Shinji peered at Rei below, still waiting for the inevitable, before focusing back at Kaworu. "Her, right?" he asked.

Kaworu sighed. "That's correct," he said. "I loved her for what she is, and filled in the emptiness that's been present in her heart for too long, and then I'm also glad that I was able to meet you."

"And…?"

"Just like you," Kaworu continued, "in the days between the time I came here and now, at first I was indifferent, I knew nothing except for the task that was given, but then I met Rei."

"Go on," Shinji said.

"I've learned much from you and from our friends; I understood what it means to be a human being, what loves and hates that makes one tick from the time of birth, and how humans are formed into what they are, to affect the changes of this world no matter how insignificant some of them are. Above all, it became my task to help you give backbone so that you may have to face the last battle, and then I have to help the rest."

"Like Asuka, Misato…" Shinji trailed away.

"By my touch, I saw the pain in Misato's heart... of loss and repressed grief owing to the death of Ryoji Kaji... Then there was you, feeling sad about what happened to Rei after she slain Brother Armisael in her last sortie."

Shinji blinked. "A... Armisael? You mean that all of you have names?"

"Yes," Kaworu agreed, "That was his name, and so are my other Brethren, including me, and I took the name of Tabris; Armisael's mission was to free Rei's last predecessor from the bondage of your father."

Rei silently nodded in acknowledgement.

"But there was a price to that," Kaworu continued, "which Rei had to pay with her sorrow that up until before I intervened, she had to cope with the pain of not remembering her past. So I made the fateful decision to help you all, to prepare you for the inevitable."

"W... What about Asuka? Misato? And me?" Shinji questioned.

"Without any selfishness," Kaworu answered, "I gave my inner strength to try to help Asuka awaken from her self-destructive misery, and I also helped Misato to see beyond the pain and sorrow of her past, to bring her senses to face the future... But as for you, I wanted to see you overcome the weaknesses that could hinder your final battle."

"But, wait," Shinji asked. "You haven't told me about where you came from… and for whom do you work for?"

Kaworu squinted for a moment and took a breath. "I came here by the orders given to me by the Committee, which your father was supposed to follow. But your father, Commander Ikari, has deviated from the plans of my superiors and, as a penalty for their displeasure towards your father, I was sent here and then foster confusion like a thief in the night."

"Just like what you're doing right now?" Shinji questioned. "Is that what they want, after all the trouble we had to endure, having dodged bullets, saw people die or those trying to kill us?"

"It's not my goal to hurt you, but as much as I don't want this to happen, it must be done," Kaworu answered. "You're the one to effect a change here; you're the one to forge your own destiny, and you have the spotlight now, so if you erase me now, only then you'll be able to confront the danger that's being arrayed against all of you."

Then they heard footfalls coming their way, before security troops began to pour through the door, arrayed themselves in a single file and readied their weapons, aimed squarely at Kaworu. Misato, Asuka and Tsutomo were the last to follow in, before stopping to gaze at Shinji's prisoner.

"Kaworu," Asuka mumbled, before her face transformed into rage. "Damn you, you fucking jackass, you should've told me that you're an Angel, for Chrissakes!" she yelled, her fist clenched upward. "What the hell happened with my Eva? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"I'm sorry," Kaworu sheepishly apologized as Rei walked towards the group and stood besides Misato. "I don't mean to... I just wanted a little spin with her."

The redhead then trained her head to find Lilith in her crucified glory, and this shocked her to near-silence. "What the heck is that thing?"

"Lilith," Misato said dryly. "I'll explain to you later."

Kaworu then returned his attention to Shinji, who was watching all of this. "Well, it seems that I've told you everything you wanted to know. Such a beautiful lie you fell for, and then… Thanks for the memories, my friend."

"And what now?" the Third Children asked.

With nothing to answer, a bright halo of light began to issue forth from Kaworu, filling and overwhelming the chamber, causing everyone to shield with their hands and turn away from the white glare.

"No!" Asuka loudly blurted, barely able to see that only Rei continued to stare at the blinding glow.

"Kaworu..." Shinji whispered and closed his eyes, before he finally tightened his hand around the handle…

* * *

And then all of them heard the unearthly, bloody sound of squished flesh, followed by a small splash in the pool of LCL below.

* * *

Thousands of meters above and ensconced behind his desk, Gendo Ikari was keeping tabs on ongoing developments when he saw one of the operators stand up and reported, "AT-Field emissions are gone now, sir."

"It means the Seventeenth Angel is now dead," Gendo said as the main display showed position markers where the surviving Eva was located. Deep within him, however, he was satisfied with the desired results of his plan, and thus he felt better and much confident.

"We've now reestablished contact with Unit-01," the operator added. "Should I make radio contact?"

Gendo shook his head. "No, belay that," he commanded. "Instead, I recommend that a cleanup and containment team be deployed immediately."

The operator nodded, before he returned to his console and began to make phone calls, and Gendo returned himself to the usual "thinking" position.

* * *

On the other hand, back in Siberia, Keel and the rest of the Committee heard of the news confirming Kaworu's demise, after their satellites no longer detected any AT-Field emissions, followed by succession of radio transmission intercepts.

"The final Angel has accomplished his mission," Evgenyi said. "He did just according to our schedule."

Keel nodded in satisfaction. He then said, "Ikari was such a good friend and brother, sharing the same purpose; our collaborator who understood us. The last task has been accomplished, thanks to his son and Unit One."

The old man then turned to the rest of the council. "Now that the Seventeenth Angel is dead, let us make ourselves ready for our final and greatest work," Keel said. "There will be no ultimatum, no hiding this time; there will be no shelter or escape, for the way is fixed and cannot be changed. No quarter shall be spared, nor time be wasted."

The other members murmured in delight, as though they were awaiting the grand banquet prepared before them, ready to be consumed.

But Keel had other things in mind, so he upraised his hand. "Brethren," he announced. "May I have your attention?"

That shut everyone up, as they readied to listen, thus satisfying Keel's need for an audience.

"I would like to bring you all to see what else we will unleash," the old man said.

"And what are you talking about, Master?" one of them asked, quite unsure as to what other surprises their leader had in mind.

"Come instead," Keel said as he stood up, preparing to walk away. "I have a triumvirate who shall give us our ultimate victory."

* * *

When the great flare of light died out, Shinji slowly turned the hand of Unit-01 to face him, and he was greeted by a huge covering of blood painted upon its palm, dripping in rivulets. Disgusted, Shinji then winced from that sight, turning his head away. He collapsed back to the headrest, and tried to think as he recovered himself from the ordeal he'd just endured.

_Mother, _he thought, blinking. _I've just killed my best friend, but I didn't have much of a choice, right?_

* * *

**Author's Notes:** This chapter was done in a space of two days, and it's fortunate that I have a single draft for this one, a snippet, really, and let's see… That "idea" file was back in June 16, 2004, and that was a long time ago, when I was starting on this story, back when I had a computer for which to use, and often I would find myself awake all night, brimming with ideas before committing them into pages and pages…

The title was from a 30 Seconds to Mars song, which was appropriate to set the emotional tone of this chapter, and I've come to greatly appreciate their music ever since I brought that album.

Looking forward, there's one last chapter to go to conclude this season, and I think the title "Aftermath" is also appropriate, and afterwards, hell's about to break loose.

Until then, thank you and good evening.

_J'ai ose._


	40. Aftermath

_**Gabriel:**__ Have you ever heard of Harry Houdini? Well he wasn't like today's magicians who are only interested in television ratings. He was an artist. He could make an elephant disappear in the middle of a theater filled with people, and do you know how he did that? _Misdirection.

_**Stanley:**__ What the fuck are you talking about? _

_**Gabriel:**__ Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes._

- From the film _Swordfish_ (2001)

* * *

Misato Katsuragi watched the investigators move about as they picked up and bagged most of Kaworu's personal effects inside his miniscule room, before consigning them to a pair of large carts parked outside his quarters. The entire section of the BOQ was completely off-limits and guarded by armed security troopers; once they were done with the forensics work would they seal the room's door with crime scene tape.

One thought had preoccupied her completely: she wondered if Kaworu's plan had _actually_ worked, but then she and many others were already witness to his demise, right before their very eyes, which means that his scheme, whatever it was, had failed.

Misato sighed and concluded that Kaworu Nagisa was indeed dead.

A Second Section agent was busy documenting each of the bags as they were placed inside the carts, before another agent came out of the door, carrying a large envelope in his hands. They talked for a moment, and then afterwards the agent with the envelope approached Misato.

"Pardon me, Colonel, but I thought you might want this," the agent said, showing the parcel to her.

Misato blinked. "This is for me? Why?"

The agent handed to her the envelope, and she examined the black kanji written on it with a thin felt-tip marker. "It has your name on it, ma'am, so I think it might be very important."

"Thank you," Misato said. "Do I need to return this to you afterwards?"

"It'll be up to you," the agent replied. "Yours is really personal unless you want it to be used as evidence in our investigation."

Misato thought for a moment, and then she replied, "I'll keep it. Again, thank you."

"Sure, no problem, ma'am," the agent replied before going back inside the room.

As she walked away, the guard on the perimeter allowing her to pass through the barricade, Misato used her fingers to feel the contents of the envelope, which turned out to be containing a jewelcase for a compact disc.

Misato wondered if Kaworu had something more for her to tell, even after Shinji killed him; did it concern about his tragic role in this scheme, or was it more personal?

* * *

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  
_**LIGHT AND WATER – SEASON 3  
**_CHAPTER 40:AFTERMATH / BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (The Season Finale)  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 8/9/2011 0:33 a8/p8

* * *

_**Terminal Dogma - One hour earlier  
**_

"Colonel, are you there?" Hamamoto asked. "Can you copy?"

Misato's radio broke the silence that came with their horrified astonishment, after witnessing the flash of light issuing from Kaworu shortly before Unit-01 crushed him with full force of her hand; at the moment, the right hand of the Eva was covered in blood and flecks of flesh and bone, with some falling into the pool of LCL.

"Do you read me, over?" Hamamoto queried once more.

They were all transfixed at the gore splashed over her hand, before Misato blinked, took the time to return her weapon to its holster, got the radio in her hand from the belt, and pressed the talk button.

"I'm here. Go ahead, sir," Misato replied.

"What's your status?"

"We're okay, and it's over. Everything's under control, even Unit One."

"And what happened to Nagisa?"

Misato hesitated for a second or two. "He's dead," she answered, "I repeat, he's dead."

"I copy that, Colonel," Hamamoto said. "By the way, containment and recovery crews are heading your way; they'll have to clean up and then haul the Evas back to where they came."

"Who sent them?" Misato asked, frowning.

"Ikari, but as far as we're concerned he doesn't have any clue about us," the old man responded. "Furthermore, Morrissey has yet to report back to him."

Misato glanced at the two Children standing besides her, together in an embrace, with Asuka providing Rei a shoulder to rest on. She then glanced up to Unit-01, and tried to picture as to what Shinji was doing onboard.

* * *

Inside and even immersed in LCL, the young man had his face in both palms, before letting them run over his hair. In frustration, Shinji then clenched his teeth, his fist hammering on the right thigh, and feeling anguished at what he did, but trying not to lash out; even the LCL that he breathed in and out tasted bitter on his tongue.

His best friend was now dead, having admitted that he was sent by a cabal of old men to disrupt them all, if not bring about the end of the world.

It was a very painful realization that of all the opponents he dealt with in the past, it was Kaworu who brought the most damage to him, because he had to kill him; because he was an Angel and could come in contact with that creature called Adam.

Shinji glanced at the power meter to the left side of the HUD; he still had 6 minutes of power left in the external battery pack, plus another five for the internal batteries inside Unit-01, before he heard Misato's voice on the radio.

"Shinji? Can you hear me, over?" Misato asked. "Hello?"

"I… I'm here," he said.

"Are you feeling okay?"

The young man nodded instinctively. "Yeah… No, I'm disgusted at what I did."

"What?"

"I said I feel sick about what I did! I KILLED HIM!" Shinji exclaimed.

"We talked about this before, all right?' Misato replied with an angered voice. "Why the hell you're—"

"He said 'I love you' to me! Like he was a brother to me! Just like me, just like Ayanami, and I heard those words for the first time and… God, he was someone whom I would consider as my brother! He should've been the one to survive, not me!"

Misato let out a frustrated groan.

"Fuck that, kid," she replied. "A survivor possesses the will to survive, and in Kaworu's case it was his choice to die. Can't you see that you did the right thing?"

Shinji managed a hard lump in his throat. "You… You sound cold."

"Of course I have to!" Misato retorted. "You think this is a joke? You think what happened here is a joke? SNAP OUT OF IT!"

Not wanting to hear more of her, Shinji abruptly shut off the radio and reclined back onto his seat.

* * *

In frustration, Misato sat on the sand and silently cursed herself, laying the radio besides her. For a moment she looked at the motionless Unit-01, before moving on to the crucified figure of Lilith, still undisturbed and leaking LCL.

"Survivor's guilt?" Tsutomo asked as he squatted down.

"Yeah," Misato answered. "I should've known that he's a sensitive boy."

Just then Sasaki approached them. "Do you have anything else for us to do?"

Tsutomo turned to face him. "Yeah, secure the perimeter until the crew comes."

Sasaki nodded. "Okay," he said before he left to gesture the rest of the party to brief them and then carry out their orders.

Once they were alone, Misato began to talk again.

"I should've known that he's been so tight with Kaworu on a personal level," she said. "You know, he was deprived of much love and affection that… this turned out to be too hard for him."

"I don't know if this'll work," Tsutomo said, "but let him think over about it… No, you two will have to talk over this matter. That kid needs an outlet, no matter how you think it's hard for you to hear."

Misato nodded. "I see."

"Guilt, as I understand it, tends to paralyze anyone, especially after committing something wrong, or he or she thinks he did the wrong thing. In this case, without Kaworu to turn to, Shinji still needs you to listen because you're the only one he trusts."

"Me?"

"Yeah, because you're more than his commanding officer; you're really much of an elder sister to him, what without a mother and a father for him."

"I admit that I've never dealt with something like this difficult before," she said. "I mean, I wasn't much of the therapist type. Instead, what I do is to try cheering up people when they're down, and I'm supposed to do that… Yet…"

"If you couldn't do it, maybe I'll help," Tsutomo said.

"You?"

"Yeah, I've been through this before, as a cop, before I came here."

"What did you do?"

The agent sighed. "We once had a rape case," he said. "The girl, having been worked over, wanted to kill herself, but I told her that she needs to overcome that guilt trip, and that life is still worth living for. I then explained to her that the best thing she should be glad is being alive and in good hands, the bastard who raped her is behind bars, and all she can do is to start over again with a clean slate."

"And did it work?"

"She admitted it wasn't easy taking my advice, but she would try, along with a few sessions with a psychiatrist. Yet, in this case we can do it, and help it along with some tea."

"I see," Misato said. "But I feel that he's still thinking it over."

"But—"

"It's best for us to leave him alone for a while."

* * *

In his seat, Shinji was fuming, this time blaming his father for pushing him into this morass of his making, into this world he didn't want to be involved with in the first place. He blamed himself; he wished he was back to where he came from, to think none of this business, much of it almost having himself killed.

_Mother,_ he pondered, _why it has to be me? Why?  
No, you must be waiting for me to be here. For what good, what purpose?  
I killed him.  
I had no choice._

In his mind's eye he saw Rei standing before him. _He was a human like me._

_No! He was an Angel! I have to kill or everyone would've been killed!  
I didn't want to kill him, yet… I had no choice.  
What should I do?  
Mother, what should I do?_

_Are you afraid of something? What do you fear? _The Rei in his mind asked.  
_What? Me? Yeah, I fear being disliked.  
By whom?_

The dim outline of his father appeared in the distance, his face hidden by shadows, save for the glint of his eyeglasses.

_Father abandoned me! __That's why I fear being disliked! To be hated! This isn't what I wanted!_

Shinji took a deep breath, as if to center himself from the nauseating sensation he still had in his stomach, and then thought of this machine of war, this unforgiving purple Angel eater who never gave or took any quarter.

_I have to pilot this__ damned thing, after all, killing the one who I loved, the one who called me as his brother, obeying the words from my father and everyone else.  
You say I have to fight in this?  
Mom! Say something! ANSWER ME!_

There was nothing but silence for a few moments, before the Rei in his imagination appeared once more, confronting him.

_Why do you pilot? _She asked. _You became one of the Children for the sake of others?_

_That's right, I do this so that I can be praised, I can feel happy, I have nothing to worry about, and for so long I never had praise from anyone else until now.  
But…  
How and what would they say about me, now that I have killed? Misato said I did the right thing, but…_

_This, _Shinji finally told himself in resignation, _I was fated to be here. I cannot escape fate, and here I am, having killed someone who was a brother to me.  
His blood is on my hands.  
I killed Angels but not…  
No.  
I have killed before.  
Terrorists who tried to kill us all, like I was living in a video game, except with real explosions and other people dying before my eyes, and I killed those bad guys.  
Because they wanted to kill Asuka.  
And Misato.  
And me._

He then remembered the first and only time he and Kaworu took a bath as brothers; the memory of it this time calmed him.

_You told me about the guilt of killing and betrayal, right? I can remember now… even the words as we talked about it._

Shinji flashed back to that moment when he asked about betrayal:

"_W__hat would you do if you were betrayed? Or someone lied against you? What would you do?" Kaworu asked as he stared at his friend._

"_I… I don't know," Shinji replied, not feeling sure. "Maybe it depends on who's betraying or lying at me."_

"_But then, what if the betrayal or the lie is severe, so severe that it would even cost a life or many lives?" _

"_I guess… I think I would get back at the liar or the traitor, because he's responsible for making me do what I don't want to do."_

"_And what if it's too late?"_

"_I'll blame myself for believing in the lie," he replied. "I would feel responsible for that mistake."_

The young man let out a groan of disappointment. _I believed in the lie he made, yet he… he made it so real that I've mistaken his words as truth.  
I was such a fool.  
A fool…_

Suddenly, in his mind's sight, Asuka appeared before him and then without hesitation, she slapped him across the face.

_You i__diot! You're living a lie, _she yelled at him._  
What the hell do you mean?  
That's right, dummy! It's for your own sake!  
Huh?  
But you tend to make too many excuses, and to think you're doing this for the sake of others is itself an easy way to live.  
Is that so?  
You're lonely, you're nothing but in a dependent, symbiotic relationship, and all you want is people to depend on you, waiting for someone to bring you happiness. False happiness, that is, idiot!_

**FLASH!**

Shinji felt he was no longer in the Entry Plug; his mind could be somewhere, but preoccupied completely with the guilt, and he looked down at his hands, bathed in crimson.

_Am __I happy with this? LOOK AT ME! _He screamed._ I have blood, his blood in my hands! And would I wake up without thinking about it? Something to get me out of this nightmare?_

_It has to be you who must find the way out._

Shinji turned around to find a boy ten years younger than him, his self at the exact time when his father left him behind in a train station: striped shirt, shorts, rubber sandals and tears.

No, he wasn't crying this time.

_But… Where should I start? Where should I go?_

This time they were in a train, the same train he rode on, an old express train that was one of the few left in working condition after Second Impact, and he could hear the clakety-clack of the wheels rolling over the expansion gaps in the rails, and then the occasional two-tone wail of the crossing bell.

Sitting together, the younger Shinji stared at his older counterpart. _The way out must start from within you, and if you want escape, the answer is not to run away but to face it. Deal with it. Take control of yourself. Don't let the guilt bring you back to where you were once used to be, for there's no turning back._

The older Shinji blinked. _That's all I have to do?_

_Yeah. You're alive, you have all of your senses and limbs intact, and you also have a mind of your own, so get up on your feet._

_What about Kaworu?_

_Him? His death is necessary, no matter how much you think you killed him, for not everything comes at a happy ending, and sacrifices must be done no matter how much the cost._

_Even with his life?_

The younger Shinji nodded. _That's right. He gave you a choice, whether to let him live or let you and the rest of humanity live, and you acted on the latter because he was about to do something._

_Like that flash of light?_

_Yes._

_I had to, because that's when he decided to destroy us all before I could bring myself to answer his question._

_And why you're still feeling guilty about it?_

_Because he's the best thing I ever had, the only friend I trusted… and I killed him._

The younger Shinji glowered at him this time, standing right before him. _Get over it._

_What?_

_You're wasting your time moping. Since you're a warrior, you're not supposed to think too much of the guilt of slaying the man who honored you once, for he gave you the opportunity to honor his memory by killing him._

_For Kaworu__,_ the younger Shinji continued, _that would be the best gift he can have from you, for he wanted to be free, and that's his way out, and since you're alive, you also have the opportunity to find your own freedom._

_I do?_

_That's right. Every person wants a way out, until he or she is satisfied and all desires fulfilled, but not all avenues of escape are good; if you don't have a conscience, if you have no hope, chances are you'll kill yourself by your own hand, a cruel waste of life._

And Shinji had a vision: it was nighttime at their apartment; Asuka walked into his room, dressed in her yellow shirt and light-blue shorts, expecting him to prepare to make dinner when she found him hanging from the ceiling, rope tied around his neck.

Shocked by this display of death, Asuka screamed, her piercing shriek causing him to obliterate the vision by blinking twice.

_That's not me!_

_Of course that's not you, _the younger Shinji reminded him. _That kind of scenario can happen if you were to degenerate into a hopeless wreck, but right now you have to credit yourself that there are still many people out there willing to help you, just as you tried to help them, for you're responsible, and also they're responsible for everything you do._

_And these same people that you give hope to, are also the ones providing whatever hope they have for you, so they're precious, just as your life is valuable._

_So I have to be hopeful, right?_

The younger Shinji grinned. _That's right, _he said._ To hope is to live, no matter how hard the circumstances, no matter where you are, even if you have the spotlight shining right on you._

Shinji now found himself in the middle of some stage, a real white spotlight trained on him, and he also had a cello in his hands, ready to be played.

He blinked, quite surprised at the unexpected change of scenery, not to mention the uncanny realism of the dream he was in, for he could see, even they were in shadows, the faint colors of school uniforms, suits and dresses.

He was back again in his school, the gymnasium still intact, and to the opposite Shinji was facing with his younger self, now with a cello of his own, and wearing a coat and tie, shorts and black shoes.

_What do you wish to play?_

_Me?_

_Yeah, you're the one with the melody in the head; does _Suite Number One, Prelude in G Major_ rings a bell? I mean, _BWV 1007_?_

_Yes, that's Bach._

_Well, let's play __this piece, shall we?_

In a flash, Shinji recalled this entire piece, down to every note on the music sheet, committed to rote memory as he drilled it into his mind almost everyday; as if on cue, he and his younger self took hold of the necks, fingers pressing on specific points, placed the bow across the strings, and began the opening notes of a masterpiece.

This piece involved a lot of deft movement, fingerwork, and masterful timing; and even this was the prelude, for Bach written this for the pros, but not expecting adept amateurs like Shinji.

Yet, playing the piece and hearing the melody he produced made him forget the bloodshed that he committed tens of minutes ago, out of the need to preserve lives and to avert a disaster.

It was surprisingly calming, his universe pieced back together like glue, as his will was being restored by the music's regenerative effects; time has become immaterial, and Shinji felt he was overcoming his own weaknesses.

_This is one of the few best parts of your personality, _the younger Shinji said.

_I think t__his is what I'm better at,_ Shinji replied, careful not to let his mind and fingers veer away from playing.

_Why don't you apply that same diligence as an Eva pilot?_

_Because to be a pilot is to be violent._

_Doing this is tough, you know, as hard as your piloting; it only becomes rewarding when you master it, even overcoming its bad sides. Of course, there's always a price to what you do, but then everything has a price to be paid, even freedom, peace and harmony._

_I see, _Shinji agreed. _There's always a trade-off, right?_

_Yeah… and by the way—_

_What?_

_If you can will yourself to feel peaceful and become clear-minded by playing this suite, then if you pilot once more, you could overcome your own difficulties. Only through weakness you could regain your strength by learning to understand yourself._

At this point they were at the final notes, the best part of the prelude, before in less than three minutes it was over; but for Shinji it was almost a lifetime, as he placed every exacting effort in bringing the music to life.

Only then he could hear now the ovation, his audience clapping and cheering as they stood up to congratulate him, and Shinji felt elated as he stood up to face the crowd. He then bowed repeatedly, before the young man turned to look for his companion.

He wasn't there anymore; even the folding chair that the other Shinji sat on was gone.

* * *

"Shinji!" a voice yelled out from outside, snapping him out of his reverie. He scrambled to sit upright and saw that Tsutomo, down below, was waving at him. He then glanced at his HUD and it told him there was only four minutes of emergency power left, having drained the external packs completely.

The young man turned on his speaker system. "Yes?" he asked.

"You doing fine there?" Tsutomo asked loudly, cupping both hands to carry his voice over.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he answered.

"Well, the recovery crew's here, so you might have to step outside and let them do their work."

Shinji heaved a sigh of relief, as he realized that whatever he imagined seemed to have lasted almost a lifetime.

"Okay, I'm coming, but I have to power down first," he answered, before beginning the process to shut down Unit-01 completely: he flipped the main switch on one of the butterfly handles, and the Eva began to wind down until all was extinguished, leaving the emergency lights on. He then pulled a lever to partially eject the Entry Plug and drain out the LCL enveloping him. Only after the plug was empty did he climb up to open the hatch, letting out a lanyard from a reel to bring himself down. Shinji then attached himself to a harness, which he hooked it up to the lanyard.

Cautiously he held tight to the rope as he descended, the motorized reel giving out more rope, but he breathed in the air once more, glad to be back from inhaling the strange liquid, until his feet was on the ground.

As he stood in the shadow of the purple colossus, there his companions were waiting for him, and both girls, hesitant at first, quickly rushed towards and hugged him hard.

"I'm sorry, Asuka… Ayanami," Shinji apologized profusely as he burst into tears. "Forgive me for what I've done to him."

* * *

Now Gendo was wondering why it was taking Morrissey too long to respond, as he glanced at the digital clock on the upper right corner of the main display; it was about twenty minutes after Unit-01 killed Nagisa, and he needed further confirmation that the boy was dead.

What's going on?

In the last two hours it appeared that confusion had reigned that they lost track of Fuyutsuki and those who opposed him, prompting Gendo to speculate about their whereabouts. Worse, he has yet to receive a report about Misato and Makoto, both still at large even at this moment.

Where are they?

The other two Children? Well, they have yet to report in or someone to at least tell him about their current status.

Whatever it was, Gendo was becoming disturbed about discrepancies popping unexpectedly, for he was supposed to be elated with the news of the last Angel slain.

* * *

Twenty-five minutes after the incident, the recovery and containment crews arrived with their equipment and vehicles, the former having brought in a pair of massive Eva carriers, with multiple set of tires taller than a bus holding a frame large enough to keep the Eva in place while in transit; the latter with their trucks full of decontamination gear and biohazard suits.

One recovery team set about pulling Unit-02 out of the larger lake, reeling her in with steel cables attached to the pauldrons, until they were able to set her secure in the vehicle's reinforced steel frame.

Under the watchful eyes of the security troopers who ringed the chamber, the rest of this group began working on Unit-01, towering over the lake of LCL; after parking halfway into the lake, the frame of the Eva transporter slowly climbed to the vertical, before lining up the attachment points and then docking the Eva carefully until the locks snapped in place.

Once Unit-01 was lowered in her place on the transporter, the decontamination team rolled in their tanker truck filled with disinfectant; before they could start sanitizing the Eva, a handful of men in suits went about meticulously collecting blood and flesh samples from the crimson-varnished right hand, every piece of loose biological material going into test tubes before the samples were stored in a Styrofoam box, to be given to the forensics lab for further analysis.

Meanwhile, search teams combed the entire chamber, looking for anything significant, but so far all they had recovered was Kaworu's torn garments, and they too were bagged and tagged before being dispatched to the waiting trucks.

As the work progressed, while Tsutomo and Misato were busy coordinating with the teams and exchanging communications with Fuyutsuki, someone was gracious enough to pass around refreshments to everyone from a cooler, in the form of soda cans and bottled water.

Near the wall of the chamber, the Children sat on the ledge, each babying an uncorked bottle of water as they watched the ongoing recovery operation.

"I'm sorry if I was… damn," Shinji said to Asuka and Rei. "Sorry about feeling guilty."

Rei said nothing, as if in mourning, but Asuka draped her arm around the girl's shoulder in sympathy; the First Children was now wearing an old terrycloth bathrobe to cover herself.

"I didn't have much of a choice except for what he said," Shinji continued before he drank from his bottle.

"What you did was justifiable," Rei finally said, breaking her silence. "I have nothing against you for his death. For that I have given you my forgiveness."

"But—"

Rei looked into his eyes. "He wanted this to end in his way," she said. "As much as I am sad because of his death, should you feel guilty about killing him, it was his choice to die for he cannot fight fate and because he was an Angel."

Shinji sighed, still feeling uneasy even after he experienced what seemed to be a trance in the Entry Plug.

"God, I'm so tired about this," he said in frustration, the sheer weight of responsibility squarely resting on his shoulders.

"I think we need to head back and take a break," Asuka said when Misato and Tsutomo arrived with Fuyutsuki in tow, prompting the Children to stand up.

"How all of you are doing?" Fuyutsuki asked with the other two adults watching him from behind.

"We're just fine, sir," Shinji answered, with Asuka holding his hand and Rei standing besides him.

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "I'm sure you're disappointed with what you did to Nagisa."

Shinji looked glum. "I had not much of a choice, sir. It's either he die or we all die."

"I see. He was a very good to all of you, but what's important are the memories you have to cherish while he was still alive, even if he was an enemy in the end."

"I'm trying to cope with that fact."

"Yes, you have to," the old man said, "but I'm afraid that I need you Children to undergo a debriefing. Only afterwards you have to get yourselves some rest."

The three Children blinked as the old man pointed at several chairs and tables set up besides one of the trucks parked outside the chamber; there Director Hamamoto was waiting for them, with Shinichi Morisato standing by, holding a tablet PC to document the proceedings.

"What about Father?" Shinji asked.

"As soon as you go there to the table," Fuyutsuki said. "I'll have to leave to deal with him."

"But he could arrest you again."

Fuyutsuki smiled sadly. "Don't worry," he said. "I have some backup with me."

Without warning, one member of the containment team spotted something floating in the lake. "Hey, I found something!" the man yelled out.

The commotion surprised them, grabbing their attention.

His commanding officer, several meters away, turned around. "What is it?"

The man pointed at what appeared to be a limb. "It's an arm, and I need a pole to get to it," he said.

Quickly two of his colleagues rushed with a pole and a plastic bag clearly marked with a biohazard sign; he was given the pole, which had a hook on one end, and carefully he extended the pole far enough to reach the limb.

It was Kaworu's arm, all right, as if it was hastily hacked off his body.

Seeing this gory sight with her eyes, Asuka gasped in disgust and averted away from the scene by turning her head to Shinji, who was just as transfixed as his companions. Rei quickly took hold of Shinji's hand, as if she needed support.

The pole caught onto the body part, and the man pulled back the pole until his gloved hands got hold of the dismembered arm and placed it into the bag held by the third man.

As the bagged limb was taken away to be stored, Fuyutsuki came up to the officer and said, "I need that arm, lieutenant."

"For what, sir?" the lieutenant asked.

"Let's bring it to the forensics lab," Fuyutsuki answered. "I want to show that arm to the Commander."

The officer blinked. "But you're still at large, and he wants your neck. You can't-"

The old man upheld a raised finger, cutting the lieutenant off. "I have an idea."

"Pardon me, sir?"

Fuyutsuki stared at the lieutenant and said, "Trust me on this."

* * *

Back in the command center and still waiting for Morrissey, Gendo was becoming impatient when his phone on his desk trilled. He picked it up.

"Sir, this is Director Morrissey," the man on the other end said.

"What took you so long?" Gendo questioned. "Where are you?"

"I apologize for the inconvenience," Morrissey admitted, trying not to let humiliation creep into his voice. "I was too busy coordinating the search teams, and we're on our way now."

Time to cut the crap. "Get to the point, Director. Have you caught Fuyutsuki?"

"Yes, we have him and the rest in cuffs. Of course we also have proof that Nagisa is dead."

Gendo blinked behind his amber glasses. "Where?"

"He left only an arm, and that's all," Morrissey said. "You may come to see it for yourself at the forensics lab, and then we'll haul Fuyutsuki and the others back to the Stockade."

"I see. I will be there in a few minutes," Gendo replied, before he put down the phone. He then stood up and told the operators present that he will be gone for a while, charging one of them to take the job of the duty officer, before he walked away and boarded the elevator.

* * *

At the other end of the line, in the forensics lab Morrissey was seated in an office chair, his wrist bound with binders, and with Tsutomo brandishing a gun pointed to the side of his head.

"It's done," he calmly said as Tsutomo returned the phone to its cradle, having held it to the Englishman's ear while talking to Gendo.

Tsutomo then turned to Fuyutsuki, who then nodded in approval. "Let's wait," the old man added.

"I'm sure this is going to work, sir," Tsutomo remarked, before pushing the chair with Morrissey sitting on it, rolling him over to one corner where a pair of SRT operators awaited to keep an eye on the Englishman.

"Thank you, and oh, call Odani and Akagi to have the operating room ready in ten minutes," Fuyutsuki reminded.

Tsutomo nodded. "Okay, sir," he said, taking hold of his mobile phone and began dialing.

* * *

A few minutes later Gendo arrived at the forensics lab, and sure, he saw Morrissey seated behind an operating table, and on it was a Styrofoam box without its cover. He walked up to the Englishman and asked, "Where's the rest of your men?"

"They're away in the field," Morrissey lied as he watched Gendo peer into the box, which contained Kaworu's arm wrapped in plastic and surrounded by blocks of dry ice; they produced swirls of cold smoke as they settled on the bottom of the box.

Gendo nodded in approval. Nagisa was indeed dead.

"Have you seen the Third Children?" Gendo asked, using this designation for Shinji, rather than using his name.

"That boy? He's being debriefed right now," Morrissey answered.

Gendo had no desire to talk to Shinji; to him the boy, even if he proved himself useful, was still too much of an emotional distraction to wean him away from his real goal.

Instead, here was the definitive proof that Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Children, infiltrator and agent of SEELE, no longer existed except for this pale-skinned limb that once belonged to his body, crushed to a bloody pulp.

He looked up to Morrissey, gave him a smile and in triumph he said, "It is done."

Unexpectedly he heard footfalls, and Gendo turned around to see SRT operators entering the room, spreading out and then they aimed their submachine guns at him.

Gendo was astonished for a second, before he had a flash of anger. "What the hell is this?" he demanded.

Just then Fuyutsuki walked into the room, with Tsutomo behind him. The old man also had a pistol in his right hand.

"You… I don't believe that you have the nerve to do this to me!" Gendo raged and his hand reached into the pocket of his coat containing the Walther PPK/S pistol. Sharp-eyed soldiers rushed to restrain him by the arms, and he tried to overpower them, only to have his forearms painfully twisted and bound to his back.

"You were once my student and friend," Fuyutsuki said coolly, but he was grim-faced, eyes flashing with defiance as the troopers took away Gendo's pistol. "I became your confidant and collaborator in your enterprise, but for years since I associated myself with you, I and many others have endured much humiliation with silence as we tried to help you make your dream come true, and some of them even paid that with their own lives. However, in the service of mankind and in this end, I have no choice but it's my duty to stop you."

Gendo's face was now distorted into rage, as if he was preparing to launch himself onto Fuyutsuki. "This is outrageous!" he exclaimed. "You can't stop me from getting to Yui!"

Fuyutsuki swung the pistol up, which was really a tranquilizer dart gun, loaded with sodium pentothal. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this," he said before pulling the trigger.

The dart gun let out a 'phut', and the projectile struck Gendo right in the chest, the dart embedding itself where his heart was located.

"Damn you… I don't believe…" Gendo whispered as the tranquilizer quickly entered his bloodstream, and hence to his brain, causing his vision to fade and wash out. "You… betrayed… me…" he gasped before the darkness finally overwhelmed him.

As his body sagged into unconsciousness, Gendo's amber-colored glasses let loose from the lobes of his ears and dropped to the floor, its lenses almost shattered to pieces as they hit the tiled surface.

At the same time Fuyutsuki sighed, and then he whispered, "Yui, I'm sorry for your husband, but we've got to save the future."

* * *

Over a table strewn with papers and two cups of tea, Shinji was in the middle of the debriefing process with Hamamoto, when the old man heard his two-way radio come to life. Hamamoto picked it up and pressed the button. "Hamamoto here, sir," he said.

"It's done," Fuyutsuki said. "We're in the process of getting Ikari out to the operating room, and in no time we'll get Adam off his hand."

The announcement surprised not just Shinji, but Misato, Rei and Asuka, the three women watching the debriefing while sitting around the table, awaiting their turn.

"That was brilliant, sir," Hamamoto praised.

"At any rate, once we have Adam free, this thing will have to be secured at all times. I don't want anyone to come close to it, so pick and assign some of your men to guard Adam."

Hamamoto nodded. "Will do that, sir."

"I want Ikari to be kept under close watch, as I have to start organizing an ad-hoc committee to run this place and to prepare for the worst."

Shinji blinked in surprise. "Was that Father that he's talking about?"

"Yes, and I'm sorry it has to be done," Hamamoto said as he covered the radio with his hand, before returning to Fuyutsuki. "Anything else, sir?"

"I want every head of every department, including you and everyone involved to meet at the conference room at oh-seven-hundred hours."

Hamamoto checked his watch; it was 5:36 in the morning, and the general emergency meeting was an hour and a half away. "I copy that, sir."

"Furthermore, I intend to address everyone in the main hall at oh-nine-hundred hours with a special declaration of emergency, as I will raise the alert status to Red Level Three. That's all."

Hamamoto nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"My pleasure," Fuyutsuki said. "Over and out."

"What happened?" Shinji asked once Hamamoto set the radio back on the table.

"I'm sorry to say that your father is now under arrest," Hamamoto said. "Fuyutsuki had to do that to put an end to the Commander's Instrumentality doomsday plan."

Shinji shook his head.

"You regret something about him?" the old man asked, noticing the gesture.

"No… Nothing," the young man said, as he sensed a bitter taste in his mouth. "It's just that his selfishness has finally caught up with him."

Just then Hamamoto heard his mobile phone ringing. He promptly picked it up. "Yes?" he spoke. "Okay, but she's supposed to… Right, I'm sending her ASAP." The old director then said, "Colonel, I think you're needed by the forensics team to identify some of his stuff at his quarters, so I'll let you go for now, and don't worry, these kids will be fine under my watch, okay?"

Misato rose from her seat. "Thank you, Director," she said.

* * *

With Gendo on the operating table and completely put under anesthetics, Ritsuko and Natsumi, now wearing surgical greens, carefully cut Adam away from his skin using a scalpel. The procedure lasted no more than thirty minutes, before Ritsuko used a low-powered laser to cauterize and weld the flaps of skin back in place on the palm of his hand.

As Ritsuko worked on mending the hand, treating it with disinfectant and wrapping it in bandage, Natsumi then gingerly moved Adam into a large stainless steel box, which she then carefully poured on some phase-change Bakelite from a dispenser to envelope it completely, before allowing a small electrical charge to solidify it. The woman then hefted the box into a larger, insulated steel box containing liquid nitrogen to keep the creature preserved, before Maya came over to shut the lid and lock it.

With the operation done, Ritsuko ordered the SRT team to transport the still-unconscious Gendo to a room and keep him under guard. She expected him to be awake after six hours, and only then he can be moved to the Stockade.

As the guards carted him out of the operating room, Ritsuko sighed as she pulled out the gloves off her hands. "It's done."

"I hope we did it right this time," Natsumi opined, while tossing her gloves into a disposal bin.

"In my case," Ritsuko said, "No more strings attached, and nothing more to worry about except whatever we'll be facing in the next twenty-four hours." She then smiled.

But Maya still looked worried, as she inwardly contemplated the possibility of armed violence, which she had little stomach for.

* * *

**Lounge and Snack Bar****, Level 12, Central Dogma - Now**

Meanwhile, Misato walked into the lounge, which was several floors below the now-secured BOQ; she carried the envelope that was given to her by the Section Two agent, and she saw that the Children were gathered around the living room, with Shinji lying on the couch, his head on Asuka's hips, and Rei, her eyes closed, was curled on an overstuffed chair, taking a nap as she was completely exhausted by her ordeal. Misato's laptop and its bag was on the coffee table, having been returned by Natsumi after she successfully hacked her way through the network and manipulated MAGI at her bidding.

The Children were awakened and surprised by her arrival, to which Misato held up the envelope, placed it on the table and said, "Kaworu left this for us."

"What's that?" Asuka said.

Misato walked over to one of the vending machines lining the wall, punched in a few yen coins and pressed a button to get her can of coffee. "Could be a goodbye letter," she said.

Drowsily Shinji picked up the envelope and tore it open, which turned out to contain a compact disc inside a jewelcase. "It's a disc."

"Play it," Misato ordered as she picked up the can from the bin.

Asuka then pulled the laptop towards her and then turned it on. While Misato drank, and with Shinji and Rei watching her, Asuka placed the disc into the drive and let the computer play it.

On the video player, Kaworu appeared onscreen. He looked calm and composed, wearing a yellow t-shirt, and then he began to speak.

"_Before I would like to explain__, first I want to admit that… That I'm sorry if I ever lied to all of you."_

Kaworu then sighed and said, _"My name is Kaworu Nagisa, and I was sent here by an entity called SEELE to punish Commander Ikari for repeatedly defying their orders, and to fulfill the prophecy as stated in the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls. I am also an Angel, and they call me Tabris, which is my real name._

"_The orders given to me before I left was to befriend Shinji and then try to break his will by betraying him__, and almost at the same time try to make contact with Adam. But that's not what I really wanted to do._

"_Instead, from the day I arrived my life, however brief, was no longer the same again. The day I first met you, Rei, you left quite a huge impression on me. I mean, I cannot forget that moment, and then we collided the next day, and… _

Kaworu smiled for a moment.

"_Fate seems to be a very quirky fellow, as I feel as if I was destined to meet all of you, for a perfectly good reason. The more involved I was with you, the more I learned about what it means to be truly human__, even if there's pain involved._

Kaworu looked away from the camera for a few seconds, before he resumed. "_Misato, if you're watching this, then you might want to hear what they're up to."_

"I'm ready," Misato answered.

"_Through collaboration with the other NERV installations, SEELE has in secret produced nine Mass-Production type Evas without your knowledge, for these are very different from the first five Evas, and we Children cannot take them very lightly."_

"What?" Asuka demanded.

"_To date, these are the most advanced Evas ever created, and to complete their capabilities each of them have their own Dummy Plug system that was based on my thought patterns.__ Finally, they also have their own S2 Engines, years ahead of what Akagi or Doctor Katsuragi could ever hope to produce and activate."_

Misato shook her head. "Now that confirms Makoto's report," she remarked.

"_Each of these MPs, as we call them, were built in separate secret locations before being transported to a staging area located in Siberia; meanwhile the Engines and the DPs – yes, the Dummy Plugs – were built at Golgotha Base."_

Shinji blinked. "Golgotha Base?"

"I believe it's located somewhere in Central Asia," Misato answered. "Kazakhstan, I think."

"_As you can see, with my thought patterns, the DP__s were programmed to first set their AT-Fields at low output, to make themselves look they're easy to kill, but after a few minutes they'll raise up their output to a high percentage, to near hundred percent, to get up and finish off their opponents."_

"Shit," Asuka cursed. "I never expected them to be that tough."

"_The only way to destroy them is to aim for their cores, but because they're advanced models, expect them to be very hard targets to kill__ as they're fast movers, and they can even fly with their wings. I know this because I've seen how they were being trained under simulation mode, and often they win in less than two minutes before either an Angel or you could mount an counter-attack. So the only other way is to have a strong offense and a quick strategy."_

Shinji looked at both Rei and Asuka, wondering what better they must do to counter these would-be archenemies; Misato chugged more of her coffee.

"_Now, these Evas are part of Chairman Lorenz's strategy, in which his plan is to eventually neutralize the Geofront and bring his plan into reality, but the problem is that I don't know what else they have in mind to destroy you all, as I was kept in the dark regarding __some of their other methods of attack. Still I predict that once he determines that I am dead and thus out of the picture, he will mobilize all of his forces to prepare for Third Impact. They will attack where there's a breach or two in the defenses, and will do so from all directions; they will never take any prisoners alive."_

Instinctively Kaworu then ran his hand through his hair.

"_However, Misato, there's another thing I should mention: does Colonel Miles Quaritch ring a bell to you?"_

At the mere mention of that name, Misato choked on her coffee. "What?"

"_While I was being __briefed before leaving, the Chairman said that you were trained under Colonel Quaritch's tutelage, in an advanced infantry course prior to your first assignment to NERV. He also said that you finished third in your class."_

"That's true," Misato admitted.

"I didn't know that," Shinji said. "How can you—"

Misato held up a hand, cutting him off. "Listen."

"_I saw this man several times in the last three months, often with the Chairman, as __I guess that they were planning a big operation; they were talking things such as how many troops it would take to neutralize the Geofront. Besides, I'm sure you know him well because he's currently heading the largest private military company in the world, which is actually SEELE's private army."_

"What do you know about this PMC?" Asuka questioned.

"The last I heard," Misato said as she paused the video, "Global Protection Enterprises has an air force of their own, with lots of UCAVs and gunships, the centerpiece of which is their Dragon gunship and they have two dozen of them; next to that they have a full armored division, with tanks, APCs and all; and finally they have thousands of specially-trained men, most of them are former members of elite units. All in all, they're hardcore."

Asuka made a face. "Good God," she muttered before Misato resumed playback.

"_Before I go to sleep, let me tell you something else, and it's personal. Through my special gift that I discovered, I was able to understand your own personalities, feelings, your weaknesses and strengths… everything that makes all of you so human. Human in the sense that there's still much good in the __lilin, contrary to my earlier views as them being condemnable. For the first time in my life, I discovered many things outside my world, where my eyes were opened to a new perspective, for good or for worse. Each of you may have suffered, but each of you can also have a chance to redeem yourselves, and to become better persons in the future… should there be a future for mankind, which you will have to defend with everything at your disposal._

"_I am very much aware that sooner or later I will die in this place after coming in terms with my destiny. Yet with my revelations about the lilin, I realized I have a potential of my own, I have a possibility that is waiting for me to ring true… Through Rei, I yearn to be a human, to be normal so that I can open my heart and my mind__… so that I can also love you as much as a lilin can."_

Now Rei began to shed tears.

"_It has become my destiny to meet you all, not as targets but as equals, and it's also fate that brought me to you, Ayanami. Yes, it's so strange that we were fated to meet once more, after what seemed to be more than a lifetime of being apart.__"_

"Like the Tanabata," Rei whispered, using the sleeve of her robe to wipe the tears away.

"_Someday, if there __would be a someday, we could meet again under blue skies, when this world is at peace, in equilibrium, when we're past the time of _koyanisquatsi_, or the Hopi Indians refer to 'life out of balance', caused by my masters... and of yours. But for now, there is no other way except to deal with the possible threat of extinction, and only all of you are the only ones who can save this world from the madness and nihilism of a few."_

They nodded in agreement; Kaworu was right, even at the end.

"_Until then, and should I am at the jaws of death, I'll cherish every moment I was with all of you__, and every minute of it… and to Rei… Thank you."_

Then it was over, the video quickly cutting to a black frame, before the laptop ejected the disc.

For a minute they said nothing, as if to let Kaworu's words settle into their minds.

"Maybe later," Misato said, breaking the silence for the first time. "I'll look for a chaplain to help us bless and bury Kaworu's arm, even if it's just a piece of him; all I want is to give him a proper funeral."

The Children nodded in agreement.

"Afterwards," Misato went on, "with little time left we have to get ourselves ready for the worst shitstorm in history, so you two will have to get into the simulators as the Evas undergo some repairs, okay?"

"Okay," Asuka and Shinji replied in unison.

Misato sighed, wondering where and how she could fit Rei for some assignment, before she said, "I saw you levitate."

Rei nodded. "That is true."

"Well, did Kaworu teach you how to use your AT-Field?" Misato questioned.

"Yes."

Misato thought for a moment, and then she said, "What else he did?"

"He used his AT-Field to blast his way through," Rei said.

"Like some shockwave of sorts?"

"Yes… Why?"

"I'm thinking of some way for you to help us defend this place should things come to worse. You need a position to fill, but with that kind of humongous potential you could do with the AT-Field, who knows, it's possible you can be on equal footing with the Evas."

Rei blinked. "Pardon me?"

Misato smiled. "You'll be our first line of defense, to scare the panties off our attackers."

The First Children had a double-take. "I apologize," she said, "but I do not understand about 'scaring the panties'; panties are not living things."

Suddenly Misato and Asuka laughed out loudly, the first time after Kaworu's demise and thus shattering the somber mood that permeated their emotions throughout this morning.

"It means that we scare them so bad they have to go back home to change their undies," Asuka reminded her between giggles. "Another idiom, Rei, that's another."

Shinji shook his head in jest. "She's still learning," he added, before Rei smiled softly.

* * *

Unknown to them, a figure staggered through the deserted hallway, having crawled himself out of the stairwell. He was completely naked, breathing and bleeding profusely, trying to keep himself upright and alert. As he walked slowly, he left a trail of blood, small spatters of them behind him.

This person was on his last reserves of strength, and then he heard some laughter from a room two doors away, wondering if he was hearing things.

No, the laughter was for real. That gave him more courage to keep on going until he stood before the lounge door, which had a small window and this allowed him to peer in; goodness, they were there, and with his right hand curled into a fist he repeatedly knocked on the glass.

"Who is it?" Misato called out as she walked over, before the bleeding person collapsed to the floor, his fingers raking the glass as he fell.

"What the hell?" Misato stammered in complete shock after she opened the door, prompting the Children behind her to come and see what was going on

Much to their surprise, Kaworu was right before them, lying on the floor, barely conscious; his left shoulder was bleeding badly, even after he wrapped strips of cloth around the stump where his arm was used to be.

Quickly they gathered around him, with Rei cradling his head onto her arms, Shinji embracing Asuka as she wept, and Misato held the boy's right hand.

"What did you do?" Rei cried, the girl now in anguish.

"I thought you were dead!" Asuka exclaimed. "I thought you—"

"Ayanami, I told you before…" Kaworu gasped, before he swallowed hard, and then he grinned with tears in his eyes. "I told you… I can change the trajectory… No, my fate, really_… and I did_."

"How the hell did you do that?" Shinji questioned, almost outraged as Misato struggled to get her mobile phone out to call for help. "You damn scared me!"

"Do you know of a man named Houdini?" Kaworu questioned.

Shinji blinked. "What?"

"Have you heard of him? Harry Houdini?"

"No, I don't know him, but why?"

Kaworu took a deep breath. "He was the best escape artist of his time; he misdirected his audience… making them see the other way around, to believe what they're seeing… when he pulled a trick on them." Kaworu then coughed. "That's what… I did, a_ disappearing act_, to convince your father and the Chairman _to believe_ that I'm dead."

"How?" Shinji asked.

Kaworu smiled. "You may not believe me, but I generated a Sea of Dirac right under, and that's where I've gone to at the same moment Unit One closed in on me."

They were astonished; they thought it to be impossible. "That's it?" Shinji asked.

"So it worked?" Misato asked after she talked to Ritsuko, who said that paramedics were now on their way.

"Yeah… Doesn't matter, except what's important is that I'm here again now, okay?"

Shinji thought of it for a moment, and then said, "Thank you for coming back."

* * *

**To be continued in **_**Blood and Water: The End of Evangelion**_

* * *

**Author's Notes: **How many days, months and years have passed since October 7, 2003?

Give or take, _seven years and ten months_.

Almost a lifetime, eh?

That was the day I first started on this fic, seven days after my birthday, an idea hatched out of an inane online quiz, combined with the vision of Dante Alighieri's _Divine Comedy_; at that time my old friend was still alive as we ran the miniscule computer shop where we received orders for retyping and printing documents for three years; I was then in my prime, happy, hopeful and looking forward where our business venture would someday become as big as we dreamed.

But that dream came to naught, for he died weeks later, and thereafter I had to endure this emptiness as things began to sour on me. Worse, almost a year later my ex-stepmother sold the computer at home because back then it was costing the household much money to pay for the electric bill, the most expensive rates in Asia, and thus my writing efforts almost came to naught, as I had to contend with a life of increased difficulty.

Yet I persevered, I kept the fic alive by thinking about it, even as days went by without a computer for which I could use, and even as I faced hell on a daily basis.

It wasn't until a year after my father's death that I was able to resume writing this piece, this time with a computer I was free to use, and with that the ideas and concepts came back rushing like a flood, committing them to every page, beginning with what is now Season Two, risking my neck and marching to hell without a pre-reader.

To what credit should I owe for this revival? I should thank Stephen King for his priceless _On Writing_, which opened my mind and inspired me to new ideas for my fanfic_._

What about structure, plot and vision? I tip my hat off to none other than Christopher "Strike Fiss" Brumet, author of _Higher Learning_.

And finally there's a very long list of people whom I also pay homage to, for they have influenced my writing, imagination, and how I view Eva from many perspectives; I will reserve this list only after I finish the treacherous final season, which encompasses the entirety of _End of Eva_.

_All right, all right… __Wait a minute, what about this chapter?_

This chapter was done, like #39, in a space of two days after almost a week of letting some ideas – both old and new - percolate around my noggin before I pour them out onto the pages, but honestly writing the last three chapters was difficult, like blindly feeling my way around in an uncharted region; apart from being inspired by Queen's _Bohemian Rhapsody, _I also incorporated snippets and rehashes of Episode 25 for Shinji's self-reflection, while listening to Yo-Yo Ma's rendition of _BWV 1007 (Suite Number One, Prelude in G Major)_.

I tried my best to provide as much depth to the characters, both canon and of my creation, but I always reminded myself that the main characters are very important, and that there's always a line to be drawn between proper characterization and mis-characterization. Still, mistakes can sometimes happen, so I apologize for whatever possible imbalances that I may have committed to some characters, along with other flubs during the writing process.

So before I go and once again, I want to say thanks to those who read, to those who gave their comments and criticisms, to those adding this story to their alerts, and to fellow writers who gave me challenges to think about.

_May we live in interesting times__; J'ai ose._

_- soulassassin547  
August 7, 2011_


	41. Recovery

_Two organizations, both alike in dignity,  
In fair Tokyo-3, where we lay our scene,  
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,_

_Where cabal blood makes cabal hands unclean.  
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes  
A pair of star-cross'd lovers risk'd their life;  
Whose adventur'd courage overthrows_

_Do with their togetherness end their masters' strife.  
The fearful passage of their defy-mark'd love,  
And the continuance of their rulers' rage,  
Which, but their Children's end, naught could remove,_

_Is now several chapters' traffick of our tale;  
The which if you with patient eyes attend,  
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend._

* * *

_**About two billion years ago…**_

Somewhere in a very remote region of the universe, billions of stony spheres were being readied to launch. They were clustered into a giant mass about one astronomical unit in radius, equivalent to Earth's orbital distance away from the Sun.

Each hollow sphere was about 13 kilometers in diameter, built out of the strongest and durable materials possible, and within this shell contained a humanoid lifeform, entombed in a block of ice, pierced by a dense metallic spear thrust into its heart.

The mysterious, humanoid beings responsible for constructing those immense structures, and then gathering them into this cluster of mammoth proportions, stood in the control center at the very nexus of this mass, were glad to see that their life's work was done, a product of many minds and disciplines.

Yet they were very aware that sooner or later, their race would become a memory, to be forgotten amongst the stars, for they were at the apex of their civilization, but fast approaching the end of their lives after millions of years of existence. At the same time, however, the spheres they have created carried little information, save for a large stone tablet and a very long scroll that was placed below the life-form's icy prison, both objects intended to be the overall documentation that explained how and why they were created; its makers hoped that someone in a very distant future, would read them and understand, to remind their creations of their past history.

The beings stood tall before the holographic displays, watched as the last few concentrated amounts of energy were being charged into the spheres, while one of those beings sat in a chair, his finger poised over a button. Another display depicted the probable trajectories of each and every sphere, designating them to a sector of the universe, having preselected the stellar systems, and hence, planets to which the spheres would be implanted into.

Once the spheres were fully charged, the leader of the beings nodded to the chair-bound subordinate to launch all of the spheres, and he, in turn pressed the button.

In a second, the orbs flew away at astonishing speeds and in multiple directions, to destinations unknown, but their purpose was to propagate life to as many worlds as possible.

This process was called _transpermia_.

After the spheres disappeared into space, the leader hoped that their creations, leaping through millions of light years for every second of their flight, would become successful upon landing on a remote, habitable planet, and someday thank them for their existence and for the gift of life.

What these mysterious beings have not foreseen, however, was the possibility that in the distant future their creations may not be as thankful as they wished, may surpass them in knowledge, and instead abuse their sacred gifts for their own selfish ends.

* * *

_**Now.**_

I am here, for a reason, a quirk of fate that brought me into this place.

I was made as a perfect weapon, a sentient, genetically-engineered instrument of a man's will, possessing the body of a man but with the organs of an Angel, I was trained to use the powers I have since birth, and then later given orders on my fifteenth year, and sent as a creditor to make another man pay for his mistakes.

They intend me to die, to fulfill their prophecy, a signal that humanity will be subjugated and integrated into a single organism where God, man and everything will be _one_.

But when I came here… well, suffice to say my life was not the same anymore, for I have become friends with some of the most imperfect people I have ever seen.

They were called the Children.

Like me.

* * *

Rei Ayanami.

The First Children.

Beautiful. Mysterious. Soft-spoken.

Yet on the first day we met she wore an expressionless mask on her face, and so I could only think she was a girl who never dreamed, cold, almost spectral, mechanical in action and also unfeeling.

But she was then the property of then-Commander Ikari, the puppeteer, the Svengali whom my former master wanted him to be punished for his transgressions. Therefore her purpose in this world was to follow Ikari's orders to the letter, even if asked to die on his behalf.

And last week her second iteration, no, I mean, her second clone died along with one of my brethren, sacrificing herself so that she thought will deny the Angel from tormenting Shinji any further.

Afterwards, the Rei that was presented to him wasn't her at all, but again a puppet.

That, and the clones of her, broke Shinji's faith in her almost completely, for through their interaction since he first arrived, without the manipulation of his father, Shinji shaped her second iteration into almost an authentic person, a girl with a heart, soul and mind.

The Third, which the present iteration of Rei then called herself, was a blank slate, devoid of the things that made the second Rei a little more human.

Once again she became a puppet, and Ikari confidently thought she would stay that way till the end.

That is, until I came into her life and saw that inside, just beneath her seemingly unfeeling exterior, she was asking for help.

* * *

The Second Children.

Asuka Langley Soryu.

Fiery and determined, reckless and haughty, and full of arrogance, she was the extrovert of the team. Smart, talented and beautiful, she had those blazing blue eyes... and a sharp tongue.

That was her back then, back before the Fifteenth Angel decided it best to punish her completely by throwing back into her mind all of the things she hated and feared, with a brutal psychic assault that she almost lost her mind, as though she was raped and violated on contact.

Especially her worst nightmare: the suicide of her mother, right before her very eyes, as a child.

That really wrecked her will to live, that a few days later she almost died by her hand, naked and her wrists bleeding in a tub half-full of water, inside a half-wrecked abandoned house.

You wonder why Asuka's such a stubborn girl back then: she's extroverted because it's her way to forget the trauma she suffered from, and she sought to have the world revolve around her.

How that Angel made her face the music, and almost turned her into a statistic.

So by the time I first saw her at the Infirmary, after my initial checkup, that's when I found her lying in bed, in her chemical sleep and due to be shipped back to where she came from, but not back home.

A few nights later I paid her a visit in her dreams, and told her to wake up, to think over about herself.

And she came back, but as a better person.

* * *

Finally, the star of the show; my brother of the heart, so as to speak…

Shinji Ikari.

The first time I came upon him, just as I was humming to myself, on a late afternoon, he was melancholic, as if he'd lost almost everything he held dear.

Yes, indeed, he was almost a broken man.

Now, how can this person, purportedly the one to save humanity, couldn't be happy?

I was aware of the grave weight thrown upon his shoulders, the pressure right on him to fulfill his role as a hero to most, the celebrated Third Children.

But he had nothing: his mother was long dead (save for her soul residing in Unit-01); his father was an obsessed man who ruled with an iron fist, single-minded in getting his long-gone wife back from the beyond. As if that wasn't enough, Shinji's upbringing by his distant relatives resulted in a personality quite introverted, preferring the contentment of a quiet life, wishing to be normal, not wanting any trouble.

Yet at present, his severe circumstances as the pilot of Eva Unit-01 prevent him from attaining that ideal life. So he had no choice, and seeing that I have presented myself as a friend, someone who could understand him, on that first day he became my younger brother.

From there, I had to teach him whatever it takes to become a genuine person, to open his heart, to persuade him to deal with personal issues on his own. Little by little, he regained some of his former courage whilst he forged new relationships with Rei and Asuka, before he fell in love with the latter, and then above all, he improved himself in even a short time.

He was now a far cry from the runaway boy he once used to be.

And I'm very proud of him, especially after he'd just passed the final test that I gave to him.

* * *

As for me, well, I've changed my mind and purpose.

I'm no longer the subjugator whose mission was to strike fear in the hearts of men. Nor I'm destined to die according to prophecy. I have defied those roles, having been awakened to the plight of my fellow Children, and the people closest to them.

Instead, my role would become the Angelic ambassador to humanity, to teach them the error of their ways and realize their mistakes, and to guide them to a new renaissance.

But not before we have to confront the coming Armageddon that could decide the fate of humanity, and maybe the universe.

So we'll have to deal with it, to bring about the end, not by Lorenz's method of false salvation, nor through Gendo Ikari's demented vision, but on _our__ own__ terms_.

Because humanity, even if its population has been cut in half, still in suffering and divided over what should be best for the rest, still has the possibility of a second chance, and that's what I've came to believe in. Hence, we'll be fighting for all we value in humanity as unlikely _bodhisattva._

I am Kaworu Nagisa, otherwise known as Tabris, the Seventeenth Angel, and we know that, for the final act on the stage of the world, our audience is waiting for us to perform under the spotlight.

* * *

**END**** OF ****EVANGELION : **_**BLOOD**__** AND**__** WATER  
THE **__**FINAL**__** SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 41: RECOVERY  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 10/19/2011 1:43 am

* * *

Being weakened almost by the loss of blood following his earlier self-amputation, Kaworu could barely hear the clanging of the gurney that borne him, as the paramedics pushed it hard and fast on the tiled floor, on their way to the Infirmary.

He would sometimes open his eyes, to see the overhead lights flash by, before his ears could hear the urgent voices surrounding him, and then heard the gurney slam through the double doors, into the emergency room.

Half-dazed, he felt the oxygen mask being strapped to his mouth and nose, and this time, even with the overriding sound of his own breathing, he thought he heard familiar, feminine voices; it was them, all right; he was now surely in good hands.

Opening his eyes again, almost barely, he could see Ritsuko's face swim into view, and there was the bright head of the penlight dancing round each of his eyes, as though making sure he was still alive.

There was a second voice… Yes, it was Doctor Odani, whom he dined and drank with last night, and now he heard them talking about getting a packet of blood or two, with the correct blood type, and then she mentioned about his arm.

More precisely, his missing left arm, the one he intentionally cut off in the few milliseconds just before Unit-01 almost crushed him to pulp, just like the way a lizard auto-severed its tail when experiencing great danger, and he felt a few sharp jabs to his right shoulder, probably a syringe or the needle for the intravenous line; must be the anti-tetanus shot or dextrose or a blood transfusion.

And then there was something else with the oxygen he was breathing in; it was making him sleepy that within twenty seconds Kaworu sank into unconsciousness.

* * *

With Kaworu completely sedated, his vital signs almost all right, and the severed arteries and veins clamped down and sealed temporarily, Ritsuko Akagi, dressed again in surgical greens, now turned her attention to the left arm lying deep in the insulated cooler, still preserved with the help of dry ice.

The operating room was filled with the sounds of the life-support systems, and with the rhythmic beeping of the ECG monitor. Surrounding and flanking her were Maya, Natsumi, and two more nurses, also dressed in greens.

On close examination of the severed arm, Ritsuko figured that even with some damage it still might be possible to reattach the muscles and set the bone back in, before welding them together with a low-power surgical laser, and then stitching the skin together the traditional way.

It might take her three hours or so, she decided, but maybe more time.

"Okay, Maya," she said to the younger woman standing a feet away from her, also in surgical greens. "Hand me over the arm."

Without saying a word, strongly braving the sight and the touch of holding a severed human limb with her gloved hands, Maya gently lifted the arm out of the cooler, went over to Ritsuko and passed it to her, before the scientist laid the arm directly aligned to the bloody stump.

She then carefully removed the clamps that kept the major blood vessels from leaking, and pushed the arm, no more than a couple of millimeters, when without warning, arm and stump welded and kneaded themselves back in one in a blink of an eye, and what was once a near-hopeless case of amputation was whole again.

Like magic.

In their quick astonishment, they all almost dropped everything they held.

"Hey, did you see that?" Natsumi remarked, her eyes blinking.

"A… Amazing!" Maya stammered.

Ritsuko nodded. "Yes, it's instantaneous regeneration. After all, he's partly an Angel, but let's wait for a moment or two."

For a few minutes they observed Kaworu until Ritsuko made a few final checks and she figured that the Fifth Children's body had normalized enough that they can now set their equipment aside and send him to the first available ward.

Once they watched the boy being carted away by the orderlies, the trio threw away their surgical gloves into a medical waste bin, took some time to wash their hands for five minutes, before Ritsuko went over to the speakerphone and dialed Fuyutsuki's number.

"Yes, Doctor?" the old man said after a moment.

"Kaworu's all right, sir," Ritsuko replied confidently. "He's now in stable condition. We got his arm back in no time, but no surgery needed."

"What?"

Ritsuko smiled. "I mean, his arm immediately reattached to his body, sir, so this one's gonna be for the books, as far as regenerative medicine is concerned."

"Excellent," the old man approved. "For the time being, Doctor, let him have his rest, but as for you, I need your presence for the emergency meeting at seven o'clock sharp, in Conference Room Five."

Ritsuko glanced at the clock affixed to the wall; it was almost six in the morning. "Okay, sir. I'll be there in a moment."

"Thank you, Doctor."

* * *

Once he put down the phone's receiver, Fuyutsuki, the former professor of Metabiology and now the new NERV Commander, sighed and swiveled his seat with a hundred-eighty turn to peer outside the windows, which afforded him the view of the Geofront grounds. Right at this moment, the surviving light-receiving blocks swiveled to face the morning sun, reflecting and diverting the light to reach this way down below, illuminating the dome-like interior.

But even now, the hundreds of tall buildings that crashed on the grounds after Unit-00 detonated herself, still remained standing over the conifers, the ferroconcrete derelicts reminded him of the city's short-lived glory as a model for urban development and disaster management.

Now he thought of his newly-elevated status, which he personally did not craved for the power it brought him, but he obtained it without ceremony or fanfare for a far more important purpose.

With his new rank came the supreme amount of responsibility needed to manage some 9,745 people under his direct command, a veritable melting pot of nationalities, almost more than half of them were combatants, some with actual military experience apart from their college degrees, but the remainder consisted of civilian contractors whom he may have to issue an evacuation order for their safety later on.

As he still was on edge and thus unable to sleep, Fuyutsuki picked up a fresh bottle of Lipovitan, a popular energy tonic good for extending his stamina, on the desk and twisted the cap open, and he wondered how things would look like after twenty-four hours.

Given Keel's clout, it could be hell on earth, brimstone, fire and all.

Discomfited by the thought, Fuyutsuki took the bottle to his lips and drank. Even at this point, as he felt the liquid tonic go down his gullet, he'll have to face a very long day ahead.

Now he imagined how Winston Churchill once experienced, his country almost on the brink of being overwhelmed and defeated by the Nazis, what it took to command a small band of defenders with whatever scant war materiel available, whilst hoping for any help from a friendly neighbor, no matter how distant, no matter how forlorn their situation.

Thinking about that defiant Briton somehow reinvigorated Fuyutsuki; figuratively he was now in that great leader's shoes, except for this time his task was to lead the defense of humanity from total annihilation, even with no other external help at all.

So the first thing he did was to turn on his computer, went online and on a website found Churchill's famous wartime speeches for himself to read and be inspired, including _Blood,__ Toil,__ Tears __and__ Sweat._

* * *

With Kaworu inside the room, lying in rest, Ritsuko was talking to Misato in the hallway, reporting to her the details of the operation, including the unexpected rejoining of Kaworu's nearly-lost arm.

"Although he bled a great deal, I'd say his biological makeup did the rest of the work," the scientist said. "Suffice to say that it would've taken much longer, along with the recovery thereafter, which could've taken a month without complications caused by infections, which often happens with reattachment surgery."

"How long before he can be released?" Misato asked.

"Given his rate of regeneration, I'd say five to six hours, but maybe even less as the effects of anesthesia will wear off over time and could wake up at any moment."

"Okay."

"Now, except for Rei inside, where's the other Children?" Ritsuko questioned. Misato accompanied the First Children to let her keep watch on Kaworu, and from time to time, through the window she glanced at Rei sitting right besides Kaworu's bed.

"They're sleeping right now in my quarters. They haven't got any decent rest since around two o'clock."

"Oh, I see… and another thing," Ritsuko said. "By seven there will be an emergency meeting."

"Yeah, I know," Misato replied matter-of-factly. "I overheard him earlier. Every department head, including you and me, and then by nine the Commander will have everyone gathered at the auditorium."

Ritsuko made a face on the mere mention of the word _Commander_.

"What's wrong?" Misato asked, taking note of her friend's disgusted expression.

"Sorry, I think I'll have to get used to Fuyutsuki being our _new_ Commander," Ritsuko said. "In any case, I'm sure he'll be on a lookout for any ideas on how to defend this place, should things come to worse, and I think you still have the moxie for this kind of thing. Remember when you guys were on that aircraft carrier, paying Asuka a visit back then? When you had Shinji and the boys brought over for the front-seat action?"

"Yeah, marlin fishing," Misato said, before they laughed for a brief while, until her facial expression turned serious. "You know, I've read _The__Art__ of __War_ many times."

"And what parts of that book you'll use for this contingency?"

"Because we're more on the defensive, we might as well to dig in deeper, as that old tactician says... and I have a lot of ideas."

* * *

In the staging base at Siberia, they were loading the Mass Production Evas onto the flying-wing Neo Point carriers, nine of them with more wingspan than Howard Hughes' H-4 _Spruce__ Goose_, but built out of aerospace alloys and carbon fiber, and fitted with powerful jet engines twice as large as those used on the Airbus A380 airliners. But those carriers were unmanned, to be commanded by direct link with an orbiting SEELE-controlled satellite.

Carefully each of the Evas were secured in frames as they were being attached under the carriers' fuselage, until the interlocks snapped into place, allowing the frames to be removed.

Because of their wingspan and weight, the runways had to be widened, lengthened and made thick enough to accommodate those carriers, and in this case the two main runways ran to six kilometers in length, just enough for the craft to claw their way to the sky, even with the use of mounted booster rockets to increase takeoff thrust.

The rest of the airbase was occupied by huge Antonov An-124 military cargo planes, Ilyushin Il-78 tankers, smaller Scorpion and huge Dragon gunships, the latter with their bellies soon to be filled with manned infantry support AMP suits, to be dropped on a hot landing zone. The AMP suits were a potent part of the overall assault inventory, essentially powered armor that can carry countless configurations of heavy machine guns, cannons, missiles, mortars and grenades.

From atop the operations building, and enjoying his morning tea while watching the heavy activity on the tarmac, Keel Lorenz, wearing his favorite overcoat, felt he was in better spirits than at any time of his life, and why not? Everything, he told himself, was in his favor: they had the most number of Evas, the better amount of firepower and manpower, the total control they had, and therefore he was confident that NERV will have little chance of success.

Only twenty-four hours from now, and then the final victory: total utopia.

"May I join you, sir?" a voice said from his back.

Keel turned around to see Colonel Quaritch, wearing a black parka over his BDU blouse and fatigue pants; the utility belt held his personal sidearm in its holster, a parkerized Colt 1911.

"Sure, you're welcome, Colonel," Keel said, smiling. "What brings you here?"

"Just to have some fresh air," the military man reasoned.

"Ah."

Quaritch walked over to stand beside his boss. "Seems that you're quite pleased, sir."

"And why I should be disappointed? What we're seeing out there is money well-spent."

"I count only nine of them, so where's the other three?" the officer asked, noting that only the white MP Evas and their carriers were present out in the open.

Keel pointed his finger towards the trio of huge hangars a mile away from where they were standing. "They're still being retrofitted with extra weapons and armor."

Quaritch nodded. "I see."

"That's right, Colonel, those three will come out should in case they feel lucky. You see, in a science-fiction movie that I watched not long ago... ah, I forgot the title, I think one of the characters once said this: 'why build one when you can have two at twice the price?' It's a brilliant decision on his part. Therefore it is necessary for us to have backup, to cover unusual contingencies that we may have not foreseen while planning, and to catch them off-guard. This is our strategy: a multi-pronged strike on all levels and all types of enemies."

Keel then turned to face Quaritch, and from the old man's pocket he gave the military officer a Cuban Cohiba cigar in its aluminum tube. Gratefully Quaritch took it, brought out his Zippo lighter and a cutter, and began the mechanics of lighting up the precious stogie.

"Thank you, sir," Quaritch approved before puffing away.

"Well," Keel said, watching the military man enjoying himself, in spite of his cancer. "Whether they're ready or not, after twenty-four hours we will be coming on their doorstep, and there will be no hesitation this time."

* * *

Unaware of Keel's preparations being conducted thousands of kilometers away, the _Jietai_ depots pre-positioned around Hakone were also engaged in full activity as they built up their forces.

Acting on direct orders from the Prime Minister, the soldiers, airmen and sailors were stockpiling munitions for their armored divisions, missiles for the destroyers, bombs for the fighters, and of course, bullets and grenades for infantry.

At the same time their reconnaissance satellites in Earth orbit had all sensors trained upon the center of what was once Tokyo-3, gathering as much data – electronic, infrared, thermal, visible, synthetic aperture radar – and then transmitting everything back to _Jietai_ HQ on the foothills in the outskirts of Tokyo-2.

Beneath the Ministry of Defense building, protected by three meters of thick ferroconcrete and entombed further in fifty meters of earth, the Tactical Operations Center of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces was alive on war footing, with uniformed staffers going back and forth, exchanging and processing information, receiving phone calls and faxes, issuing orders, producing printouts, and constantly updating the map of Hakone and the order of battle on the huge main display.

Right above the buzz of activity, in a closed conference room overseeing the TOC, the entire cabinet was deep in their emergency meeting, plus two generals, an admiral, and the Prime Minister himself, all engaged in a conversation about what to do with NERV and the perils they posed to the country.

"The Instrumentality Project that NERV was secretly researching for years has come almost close to completion," the Prime Minister said. "They're about to begin Third Impact to annihilate mankind, and the mere thought of it sends shivers down my spine."

He made the assertion after reading the last piece of intelligence that was presented to him by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, all the details obtained by the only spy who worked within NERV but now dead. For years he did not like this secretive agency and its questionable activities within his country, fearing whatever it was producing within its bowels could trigger a calamity on a global scale, but now, having heard of the near-disaster in the Geofront an hour ago, his fears were well-founded.

"Which is why, your Excellency, we're gearing up for the possibility of Commander Ikari betraying us," the _Jietai_ general in a green uniform said. "The staging areas are being readied as we speak, and our availability numbers for all of our divisions and squadrons are excellent, with up to 97 percent."

The Prime Minister nodded. "Superb. Go on," he said.

"For their safety, we are going to issue evacuation orders for people living within the 80 kilometer radius of our theater of operations," the general added. "We intend that there should be no civilian casualties by the time the operation commences."

"And of course, we'll want to have limited or no media coverage should we proceed," the politician said. "What about our N2 missiles?"

"The Tateyama launch facility now has N2 warheads loaded onto the ICBMs since yesterday, and is right now standing by, awaiting your orders," said the air force general, dressed in a dark blue uniform.

The launch site on the peninsula near what used to be old Tokyo, was originally used for the country's space program under the agency called JAXA; in the past, the agency's rockets were lifted off from that site, sending satellites into orbit, but now with the facility under strict military control, it saw recent combat action in which a weapon of mass destruction was used in anger for the first time in decades since _Fat__Man_ leveled Nagasaki: an N2-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile bathed the Third Angel with temperature hotter than the surface of the sun, but without much success as that Angel walked out of the firestorm minutes later with not much of a scratch.

But this time they would soon be using the weapon on a _real_ target, one that can be easily destroyed.

"With the detonation delay mechanism," the general said, "the warhead should be sufficiently powerful enough to penetrate through a hundred meters of earth and then rip out the Geofront's shell, just right to make a hole two kilometers wide. The blast would also generate a sizable amount of devastating shrapnel and a strong shockwave to kill any exposed personnel within the dome."

"What else?"

"Since our guided missile destroyers were built along their original American counterparts, sharing design characteristics," the admiral in white uniform said. "We will load them with conventionally-tipped Tomahawks in the VLS launchers, and after the N2 destroys the outer shell, they are programmed to hit the HQ building, plus any vital installations they have as secondary targets."

"Only then, along with full artillery and rocket strikes, and saturation bombing to soften enemy positions, we will throw everything we have into that snake pit," the GSDF general said. "We will use our Chinook choppers to land in the troops and equipment, gunships to provide air support, and bulk lifters will follow them up by dropping in armor with their tanks and APCs right there," the army general added.

The Zeppelin bulk lifters were recently included to the AJSDF inventory; manufactured by a new German aerospace company using the same name as its original creator, they were essentially double-bodied dirigibles thrice the size of the ill-fated _Hindenburg,_ built out of advanced aerospace materials, filled with helium, and used very powerful engines to move as much tonnage as a C-5 Galaxy military cargo plane with the accuracy of a heavy-lift helicopter. Furthermore these bulk lifters were designed and then tested to withstand even typhoon-intensity winds while in the air.

"Is anyone monitoring their communications?" The Prime Minister asked.

"Yes, and even up to now," the minister of telecommunications said. "With NERV's lines tapped and being listened to, we're passing all the data to Internal Affairs, to keep us one step ahead."

"But before we commit all that," the general said, "do we have to negotiate with them first?"

"Yes, and what we should say once the world finds out what's going on?" the foreign minister chimed in.

The Prime Minister thought for a moment. He'd been thinking about this scheme – the largest heavy assault ever soon to be conducted by the Japanese military since Pearl Harbor – for two weeks, about the implications this scheme might bring to him and the rest of the world.

In any case, it was Ikari and his little project that worried him much, after he read the intelligence summary and reports, all of the evidence indelibly linking that man to the Antarctica incident. He remembered the last few times he talked with this enigmatic Ikari, sometimes on the phone, and sometimes through streaming video.

The Prime Minister didn't have to be in the same room as Gendo to feel his cold spirit; even his voice exuded a disturbing coolness, as if he had no qualms with his job. Any lower than Ikari's double doctorate, the politician decided, he would've been a fastidious killer... or someone like Adolf Hitler.

And the last thing the world needed was a doomsday prophet, one who would destroy all mankind, and if he needed to preserve his legacy, he must have Ikari stopped… even if the PM was under Keel Lorenz's authority through means of wholesale bribery.

"Here is our ultimatum: twenty-four hours from now, presenting NERV with our demands, I want them to bring out Commander Ikari and his co-conspirators, have them arrested for treason, disclose their secrets, and then have that whole place shut down _completely_," the Prime Minister finally said. "That's what we'll ask from them first. But should they do not agree, or they attack preemptively with their Evas, or they begin powering up their doomsday project, whatever the hell it is… _Kill_ them all without hesitation, destroy everything inside, and then seal it up completely. Understand?"

The _Jietai_ generals nodded. "Yes, sir," they replied in unison.

The Prime Minister stood up and added, "We will not allow America, Germany or China to interfere with this internal matter, nor allow them to take advantage of us. Furthermore, if the Diet starts asking questions afterwards, should we and our country ever survive in one piece, we'll present them with our own facts; considering the gravity of the situation we're facing, they'll believe in everything."

He then took a breath and picked up a red phone. "For this time being," he said while dialing, "with the emergency powers granted to me, and for the sake of preserving public order, this country shall be put in a state of martial law… and that will begin _now_."

* * *

His secretary, a slender thirty-year old woman, was silently observing them as she stood behind her boss, talking about making war on NERV and then martial law, before he made a call.

She then silently remarked to herself: _Humans__ must__ be __the__ only __creatures__ able __to__ despise __their __own __kind._

As she presented a folder to her boss, containing a document confirming his order to impose martial law, called _Operation __Plan__ Sagittarius __(Executive __Order __A801)_, the woman then wondered where she would be when the shooting time comes, and what about her family?

As he signed the executive order, both in paper and digital forms, making it effective from now on to suspend civil liberties and hand over civilian government control to the military in all levels, the secretary closed her eyes for a moment, and prayed that at this moment they should be far away from Hakone.

* * *

_In his dream, his sleep induced by the anesthesia administered to him during the operation, Kaworu was standing amongst a sea of crimson-soaked cadavers._

_His white sneakers were now drenched in blood, as he walked over the bodies, mostly dressed in NERV uniforms, all of them unarmed, their faces contorted in pain and disbelief, their sightless glassy eyes having witnessed the final moments of their lives before being cut down by bullets. The rest of his surroundings were burning, with buildings reduced to rubble, some of them pock-marked with the impacts of munitions._

_He then looked up to the sky, the Geofront opened up completely, and saw nine white Evas, descending from above, their elastic wings unfurled in flight._

_They encircled Unit One just as she came out of the Pyramid's ruins, and then a spear, as though hurled by an unseen God, flew in very fast and stopped short of striking that Eva's throat with its twin tines._

_He could then hear Shinji screaming, having lost all control of Unit One, the white Evas instantly imprisoning both pilot and Eva in their glowing AT-Fields._

_As if he sensed his presence, Kaworu then turned to find Keel standing several meters away from him, the old man's face glowing in triumph. Keel also had a small pistol in his hand, its barrel still smoking, before Kaworu slowly lowered his gaze to find Gendo Ikari's lifeless body lying right at the old man's feet._

_Suddenly Keel laughed, the loudest Kaworu could ever hear from him, and then as though he was very close, the old man spoke._

"_Do you think you and these dead blasphemers can win?" Keel questioned, staring back at Kaworu through his visor. "If he said that death gives birth to nothing, then death is what they shall have. You will have no hope but defeat, only we hope for victory over your worthless friends. They shall be subsumed into Instrumentality, whether they want it or not."_

_Keel then outstretched his right hand, the pistol still in his grip, to point out Unit One being lifted out into the sky, accompanied with the grinning white Evas, brandishing their imitations of the original Spear. _

"_She shall have purpose in this end," Keel said. "She, being the true clone of Lilith, will be the key for our final salvation."_

* * *

Suddenly Kaworu woke up with a start, his eyes flicking open to find the white glare of the morning sun almost blinding him as it shone through the windows. He blinked, and turned his head to find Rei staring back at him with her alert, cerise eyes.

Kaworu sighed in relief. "Oh, it's you… Sorry."

"Good morning," Rei said. "What is wrong?"

The Fifth Children swiveled a bit to check on his left arm; it was whole once again, the site of the amputation now heavily wrapped in bandages. He could also hear the faint beeping of the ECG monitor, its sensors taped to his chest. Almost above his head was the usual plastic bottle of dextrose, slowly providing his bloodstream a little sugar.

"No… Nothing, I'm just fine," he said.

"You woke up as if you came from a dream," Rei said.

The young man's now looked serious. "Yes, but it's a nightmare."

He then recounted to Rei about the nightmare he had, in every detail, down to the very wisp of smoke coming out of the barrel of Keel's weapon.

"He will leave this place nothing but a barren wilderness, should he wins," Kaworu concluded, and without warning he tried to get up.

Alarmed, Rei took his wrist. "You cannot leave yet," she warned. "Doctor Akagi told me."

"What?"

Rei shook her head. "You need to rest first."

"But this is urgent, and I need to talk to Misato. Where's she?"

As if by the mere mention of her name, Misato and Ritsuko entered the room, and they saw Kaworu sitting on the bed.

"So you're now up… and what the heck are you supposed to do off the bed?" Misato demanded.

"I want to talk to you," Kaworu replied. "I'm trying to get up, but I'm sorry I woke up pretty hard."

"No big deal," the woman officer said as she found an extra chair and sat down on it. "Tell me, what's wrong?"

"He had a dream," Rei said. "He dreamed that they attacked us."

"Who, SEELE?"

Kaworu nodded. "That's correct. They could make the first strike at any moment, and I fear that we could suffer too much," he said, before retelling them a shortened version of his experience.

"Which is why, in a few minutes," Misato said afterwards, "Ritsuko and I are going to attend an emergency meeting."

"Okay."

Without hesitation Ritsuko took out her stethoscope and for a moment, with Misato and Rei observing, went about giving Kaworu a impromptu physical examination.

Afterwards, Ritsuko turned to Misato and said, "On second thought… I'd say he's ready."

The other woman was surprised. "What? I thought you want him to rest?"

"Because we're in a really critical situation, I've changed my mind," the blonde doctor replied, and then she turned to Kaworu. "I want you to join us in that meeting, which would start within thirty minutes."

"Okay," Kaworu agreed. "I think you really want my input."

"That's right," Misato said. "You have first-hand, class-A intel, direct from the source, and as such I want you and Rei to help me with the planning of our defense, because for this time we don't wish to be caught with our pants down."

"I will come," Rei said.

Kaworu smiled. "Thank you," he said before Ritsuko went to the intercom to ask for the nurse to assist in freeing the Fifth Children from the IV tube and the ECG electrodes.

Misato then faced Rei and, pointing at a duffel bag containing his clothes, she ordered, "Go get his clothes… and oh, by the way, Kaworu—"

They all heard the young man's stomach growling, cutting Misato off.

"Pardon me, but yes?" Kaworu responded, but he looked a little embarrassed.

Misato laughed and then she said, "I'm sure there will be some breakfast served, so no problem if you feel hungry, okay?"

As Rei placed his clothes on his blanket-covered legs, Kaworu nodded. "Once again, thanks."

"You're welcome," Misato said. "Now get dressed, 'cause we don't want to get late."

* * *

Now Kaworu was in the bathroom, the shower head at full blast as the room slowly filled up with steam. Before stepping into the stall, he paused for a moment to check on his left forearm, intact once again, with not even a scar left.

He then remembered the final moment he was within the huge grip of Unit-01, her fingers almost crushing him, making breathing and movement difficult.

But even at that point, and while giving Shinji his spiel, his mind was already at work until he figured out a way to escape.

And he remembered Leriel, one of his brethren, capable of producing an unusual form in which his real body was a powerful multidimensional black hole, a Sea of Dirac, and his "shadow" a zebra-striped sphere.

Before being sent to Tokyo-3 and as part of his training, which included the review and study of every piece of footage, raw and uncut, of the Evas in action, Kaworu witnessed how Leriel conceived of that strange property, as he took Unit-01 unawares, expecting the sphere to be her target, only to make a misstep into the blackness spreading under her feet, before sinking in like a mastodon trapped in a tar pit. Then hours later, in what could be construed as a ghastly depiction of a magic trick gone awry, Unit-01 emerged from the sphere, tearing Leriel's fleshy "shadow" apart as she burst out with an unearthly roar.

That became his Houdini trick, and in a fraction of a second Kaworu concentrated all of his energy to open up a portal, tens of meters directly below him, just beneath the orange surface of LCL.

Once done, he then unleashed a blinding glow emanating from his body, to distract everyone, and willed himself to change into a _liquid__state_, to drip out of the death grip and land directly into that Sea of Dirac, thus he disappeared from out of physical existence, to a different world beyond the reckoning of existing physics and scientific explanation, where time and space became immaterial.

When Kaworu opened his eyes in this elseworld, the verses of William Blake flashed through his mind:

_To see a world in a grain of sand,  
And a heaven in a wild flower,  
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,  
And eternity in an hour._

He then saw ghostly figures at first coming out of the darkness, almost unrecognizable due to their glowing forms, but as it came closer the apparitions became well-defined until fourteen of them stood before him, dressed in white, flowing robes, all formed in the image of the Lilin.

They were the Angels who previously failed to wrestle destiny from the hands of Lilin, and having defeated by the Evas, they were banished to this elseworld, where they were to wait in limbo until some far-off time be summoned to relive in a different existence.

The tallest of the Angels approached Kaworu, staring into his cerise eyes, with intent to question his unexplained appearance in this realm.

"_Brother, what has brought you here?" he asked. "Have you died now, as predicted?"_

"_It's not my time," Kaworu replied. "I'm sorry… I have to do this for a friend."_

"_Is it the one Child who defeated us before you?"_

_Kaworu nodded. "Right, but this is a very different situation," he said. "You see, there's a difference between the time before I came to his presence, and afterwards. Before, I was made as a servant, created from his body and of our first Brethren; I was ordered to subjugate, to emasculate this Child, sow doubt and fear in his soul._

"_But after I have met the child of Lilith, I have thought otherwise; I suddenly had a change of heart."_

"_Why then?"_

"_After even a short time," Kaworu answered, "I have finally understood why humanity, or beings we call as Lilin, have a reason to exist instead of us: it's hope that impels them to do what it takes to make their world livable even if some of them are engaged in strife."_

"_Yet they are supposed to be destroyed in the first place, for the world they exist in is not theirs to take," the tall Angel argued. "They have doomed themselves, and we are ready to take back what should be ours... and you are supposed to be our final hope!" _

"_Think again," Kaworu said. "Have you ever felt their suffering hearts, as they fought against you? Have you understood their deepest desires and fears? Not all of them are deserving of condemnation, and this includes the Children; they do not warrant this for they have grievously lost what makes them whole; they took up fighting us, thinking it would give them purpose, a reason to exist, under the noble pretense that they're bred to save their world... But no, they were being manipulated without realizing it, merely tools for other scheming men seeking to harvest the fruit that is not yet ripe before its time."_

_The Angel was ashen-faced. "What do you mean?"_

"_What is happening in the world of the Lilin," Kaworu said. "These men are seeking to force Instrumentality prematurely without realizing its true meaning, and they want nothing but escape from the morass they have created in their greed and avarice, to destroy and subsume all others in a single day, without quarter given or taken."_

_There were no words between them for a moment before the other Angel spoke again._

"_So, you are willing to return to that world?"_

_Kaworu nodded. "Yes, it is now my duty to be involved, to save their existence from that impending doom."_

_The tall Angel shook his head. "You are a romantic fool, Tabris."_

"_I have no problems calling me that," Kaworu responded defiantly. "It's my decision now, and should I and the Lilin survive, I am prepared to become a mortal for my beloved, to sacrifice my immortality and all the powers granted to me. Now, do you agree with what I am about to do?"_

_At first, the other Angels looked at each other with askance, unsure what to say, before they started to debate among themselves, like Greek academics in Plato's time. This took Kaworu some twenty-or-so-Lilin minutes until they finally reached a consensus, confronting with their eyes staring right at him._

"_Tabris," the tall Angel said. _

_Kaworu blinked. "Yes?"_

"_You shall be our only ambassador; you shall be sent back into their world as a Bodhisattva, to save them all, and to teach the Lilin the error of their ways should you and your allies win the day. However… In case Instrumentality happens beyond your power to stop it, then we all know who are deserving of redemption, those who are fools shall be condemned to be reborn without any knowledge of evil or malice, to be reeducated... and those who are evil incarnate, there shall be no reward for them."_

"_So you mean…" Kaworu trailed._

"_For them, there can be only one final chance. No more, no less, no second chances, and no reversal."_

_Kaworu nodded._ "_I agree, Bardiel."_

"_Go forth, Brother," Bardiel said. "They are waiting for you… and yes, we will remember your sacrifice for eternity... Shalom."_

_Without a word, Kaworu smiled and then bowed in thanks, before he slowly faded out._

* * *

His eyes flying open once more, Kaworu found himself back to reality, with the steamy water now splashing on the top of his head, making his tufts of gray hair completely and dripping wet.

With Rei and the others waiting for him, he decided not to hesitate any further, so Kaworu took the bar of soap from the tray set into the tiled wall, and began to lather himself.

* * *

At that same moment, as the sun slowly rose from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the same sun that the Japanese respected for thousands of years, the very life-giving and warm symbol of Amaterasu, the _Jietai_ units have begun to move in quietly to enforce martial law, from rural hamlets to major cities within a 80-kilometer radius of Hakone.

Operation Sagittarius was now underway.

Disrupting the breakfasts of countless civilians thinking about the day ahead as they ate, scores of helicopters and planes roared over rooftops, along with tanks and APCs rumbling through the streets, all of the martial activity almost a modern-day reenactment of the American invasion more than half a century ago.

The _Jietai_ officers came up to the doorsteps of every town and city hall in that radius, presenting the faxed copy of their orders from the Prime Minister himself, and some of the mayors complied without question.

Some, however, asked why, and the soldiers replied that they were merely following orders to enforce public safety and to forestall any possibility of chaos arising from an impending disaster.

What disaster? the local officials asked in doubt.

The military officers brought out another lengthy document, purportedly a report produced by government scientists, who said that they feared that at any moment the NERV installation within Hakone may face a catastrophic disaster resulting from a flawed experiment, including the possibility of a powerful mass explosion, with biological or radioactive contamination.

Without much ado, and considering the amount of fear and chaos generated by the Evas whenever they were deep in combat with the Angels, thus making NERV highly unpopular outside Hakone, the local officials declared a state of emergency, exhorting citizens to evacuate and empty their homes, helped along with the _Jietai_ providing generous assistance to the near-panicked people to direct them to evacuation areas beyond the potential danger zone.

Next thing after hearing the declaration from their officials, the locals, especially the younger generations, started posting messages on every social network (Twitter, Facebook, Mixi) or video streaming site (Nico Video or Youtube), or on their cellular phones (almost overloading NTT's exchanges and cell sites), telling about their current status, eyewitness news, and exchanges with alarmed relatives and friends.

Soon the highways and trains were filled with fleeing refugees, in all forms of transportation, from tiny _kei_ cars to tour buses and trailer trucks, hauling almost all of their personal possessions even on the roofs of their vehicles.

In thirty minutes the unusual activity around Hakone, with news filtering out of Japan got the world's attention, and the news channels went on air, shouting _Breaking__ Story_ in digitized captions on screen, anchors in studios talking about the widespread evacuation with the correspondents in Tokyo and elsewhere.

After an hour, with the evacuation order in effect, the Prime Minister appeared on television, to explain his reasons for declaring martial law.

Only then the rest of the world was stunned with the annoucement.

* * *

**Author****'****s**** Notes:** Hi, readers… I'm back after weeks of having to grapple with some personal issues; can't say much about them but they almost stopped me from writing and thinking about the plot for this final season.

Over the years, there have been different fanfic interpretations of End of Eva, and thus in preparing for this work I personally read some of these revisions, with either hewing close to the original story with a sordid open end, or providing a clichéd, sugary 'happy ending'.

For ideas, I have also reviewed many fictional and real-life stories and historical accounts, especially those with epic final battles, harrowing sieges, with protagonists that seemed to be outnumbered and outgunned by a strong antagonist, surely to be crushed like a fly.

I decided to make this Final Season more different and very sweeping, though, synthesizing much characters, stories and things that I have admired, and then putting them all together in one place, a spot between the hammer and the anvil, where their mettle will be put to the test.

Until then, thank you all as I'm gearing up for the next chapter.


	42. Code Orange

It was almost an half hour since six in the morning, the sunlight filtering through the windows, its beam reaching out to the sleeping figure on the bed, her body covered by a blanket.

Asuka lay almost quiet, with only the long rhythm of her breathing an indication that she was in deep sleep, after an entire night engaged in an emotional roller-coaster ride, which taxed her body to the point of exhaustion.

But she knew that before falling onto this bed, it might as well be the last decent amount of peaceful sleep she could experience, for it became clear that as soon as she wakes up, she was sure the world around her would not be the same again.

Instead of peace, with the 'elimination' of the last known Angel, war was forthcoming.

In what form, it was beyond her imagining, only hearing about the descriptions and factoids that Kaworu gave out on video, before she and her companions discovered him almost bleeding to death, his left arm gone with only a bleeding stump to prove it.

Whether war or peace, as soon as she and Shinji came back on Misato's order for a full rest, Asuka dropped herself onto the bed, and to her surprise quickly went into slumber.

But not so for Shinji, who, at this moment and sitting on the side of the bed, his chin propped on a hand, was brooding, intensely contemplating about the unimaginable, the confrontation which could decide the fate of the world.

And all of it was hinged on what he may soon have to do, him being the sole pilot of Eva Unit-01, the purplish gargantuan slayer of Angels.

This sordid fact that has placed him on the harsh glare of the spotlight only served to deny him the right to a fitful sleep.

* * *

**END ****OF ****EVANGELION : **_**BLOOD **__**AND **__**WATER  
THE **__**FINAL **__**SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 42: CODE ORANGE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 11/17/2011 18:11 a11/p11

* * *

Down at the secondary command center, directly below the ruined original, there was a marked increase in activity after the earlier ruckus at Terminal Dogma, as personnel went scurrying about, exchanging notes and data, all the while their eyes were trained at the situation board displayed on the main screen, monitoring the news feeds, the firewalls that secured the MAGI, radar sweeps, and perimeter security.

Since the supposed demise of Kaworu Nagisa, security has been tightened on Fuyutsuki's orders, which meant that any movement in and out of the complex has been restricted to all but only with the new Commander's permission.

On the upper bridge, Maya, Shigeru and Makoto were all having breakfast, consisting of filled tuna and melon buns and hot coffee.

"So there's not much of a choice, eh?" Maya asked as she nursed her drink. She was personally disappointed with the heightened security, which means that it would now be impossible to resume her daily off-duty routine of mending the laundry at her abode, an apartment complex just a kilometer away from Gate 14.

Makoto pointed at the threat condition level at the main display, telling them they were currently at Code Yellow Level Alert (according to the _NERV __General __Operations __Manual __35-11_, there are five alert levels: _Code __Blue_, _Code __Yellow_, _Code __Orange_, _Code __Red __One_, and _Code __Red __Two_); the huge digital clock besides the threat meter also told everyone it was now 6:55 in the morning. He then took a sip and sighed.

"Yeah, we're still at level one," he answered. "But I don't think we're at peace anymore. Not with the crap we could be facing in the next forty-eight hours."

Shigeru groaned and added, "No rest for the good guys,. Our job's not done yet, not with this Committee preparing to drop a freaking bomb on us."

"So what we should be doing, then?" Maya questioned.

"I suppose we have to stick around, with our guns ready, not unless there's an unexpected sea change," Makoto said, and then his eyes caught on one of the satellite feeds broadcasting the news. It was a special announcement, but with the Prime Minister showing up in person, live from the executive office in Tokyo-2.

"Hey, look there!" Makoto exclaimed, his finger pointing at the suit sitting before an ornate table. "Listen up!"

Shigeru and Maya were surprised. "What?" they questioned in unison.

_"…and effectively starting at seven in the morning today," the Prime Minister announced, "Executive Order A801 is now in full effect, which means, for national security reasons, government control and all institutions has been temporarily handed over to the military, and therefore, by the emergency powers granted to me by the members of parliament, to deal with the threat posed by the potential disaster that could happen within the Hakone region within seven days, I have signed this proclamation declaring martial law."_

The trio looked at each other in disbelief, and both upper and lower command bridges were hushed into shocked silence, as the bald-head went on explaining that for the duration of martial law period any civil liberties will be suspended and civilian movement be limited.

"Martial… law?" Maya gasped.

"Yeah," Makoto confirmed before he picked up the phone and began dialing for Fuyutsuki's office. He could hear the old man take the receiver and then speak.

"Yes?"

"Sir, we have an urgent development right now," Makoto said.

"What's going on?"

"I am sorry to say this, but the Prime Minister has declared martial law."

"What?" Fuyutsuki almost yelled right into his ear.

Just then he heard the fax machine turning itself on, screeching, and it began to spit out a printed sheet. Makoto then ripped it off the feed and skimmed quickly, before going back to the phone.

"Where did you go?" Fuyutsuki demanded.

"Sorry, sir, but there's a fax coming from the Prime Minister himself," Makoto replied. "Can I read it for you?"

"Go ahead."

Makoto took a deep breath and read off the government communiqué, which demanded that within twenty-four hours NERV must stand down, hand over former Commander Gendo Ikari for state crimes (including treason and other violations of national security), and all personnel must leave the premises for military occupation, for the seizure of the Evas, weaponry, other related equipment and experiments, and the eventual shutdown and closure of the entire complex.

Furthermore, all special rights and privileges previously extended to NERV have now been revoked and thus considered null and void, and to rub salt on the wound, the Prime Minister also had his signature affixed, along with those of the key members of the cabinet and the parliamentary leader.

"And what if we don't comply?" Fuyutsuki questioned thereafter.

"They will use armed force with extreme prejudice," Makoto answered.

What followed was silence from the other end of the line, the old man suddenly thinking hard, before he coughed and spoke.

"Okay, tell the division chiefs, including Hamamoto, Katsuragi and Akagi, that I'll cancel the meeting right now," the old former professor ordered. "Instead, have everyone – even the Children – at the main auditorium immediately for an urgent announcement and a full emergency briefing,"

"What about those who couldn't get there, sir?"

"Set up for a full closed-circuit broadcast, so that they'll catch it and watch. I'll get ready to talk to everyone about this matter and what we must do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," Makoto agreed as he looked at Shigeru and Maya, waiting for him.

"Do it."

* * *

They were on their way now, walking along the corridor at a brisk, urgent pace.

Kaworu and Rei were together, their hands clasped, their eyes filled with determination and purpose, but they were no longer dressed in their all-too-familiar school uniforms but in shirts and jeans. In their minds there was no doubt denying that soon they would have a huge role to play in the forthcoming calamity, the aces in the sleeve should the going becomes tough.

Abreast of them were Misato and Ritsuko, just as grim as they walked in unison, armed with available knowledge about their respective crafts, warfare and science. The former also hand-carried the steel box which contained all of Kaji's obtained secrets, the latter with Misato's laptop in its bag, its strap holding onto her shoulder.

In Misato's mind she knew that, being the Director of Operations, they would naturally look up to her as their chief strategist, having previously studied at a military academy, learning about warfare and conflict while simultaneously understanding what it took to prevent another form of armed conflict.

On the other hand, although a scientist by profession, Ritsuko was a woman learned in dealing with two other kinds of warfare: that of defending computer networks, and of treating and preventing disease and death.

Both women knew that they have a long way to go, and in the event should the balloon goes up, their years of knowledge and experience would come in handy.

Just then Misato felt, rather than hear, her phone vibrating. Not missing a beat as they walked, she fished the phone out of her pocket, made a brief glance at the display (it was Makoto calling her) and pressed a key.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Situation has gone critical," Makoto answered. "The Prime Minister has declared martial law, and also issued Executive Order A801."

In shock, Misato almost tripped her feet on that one, nearly dropping her load. Ritsuko, Kaworu and Rei noted this and halted in mid-stride.

At the same time the base PA repeatedly announced the new alert status: _Code __Orange_. This was then followed by a request for all personnel to come to the auditorium for an emergency general meeting; those who cannot attend may also use the close-circuit television network and video streaming to watch the proceedings.

"Are you okay?" Kaworu asked.

Misato struggled to get up on her feet. "Y… Yeah," she said, getting the phone close to her ear. "All right, what the hell that means?" she questioned Makoto.

"We're screwed: no special protection, rights or privileges for us, and therefore all of what we have here should be handed over to the _Jietai _within twenty-four hours_._"

"Including the Evas?"

"Damn right… and Ikari, too, for state crimes. That's the ultimatum."

Misato made a sour face. "What if we don't?"

"They'll blow us out to kingdom come."

"Shit," she cursed. "Now what?"

"Commander Fuyutsuki has now cancelled the meeting," Makoto replied, "so instead you'll have to head to the auditorium within ten to twenty minutes. Who's with you now?"

"I have Ritsuko with me, plus Kaworu and Rei. We're bringing all of Kaji's stuff, and we're supposed to present it at the meeting."

"Okay, but what about Shinji and Asuka?"

"They're taking a rest at my quarters in the BOQ."

"The Commander also needs them, too."

As if asking for an agreement, Misato turned to Ritsuko and the two Children, and they all nodded.

"All right, we'll pick them up," she said. "Keep me updated, okay?"

"Roger, and I'll meet you there," Makoto concluded before shutting off the line.

* * *

With a mug of hot chocolate Shinji walked over to the bay windows that gave him the whole panoramic view of the Geofront. He tried to imagine what would be like in case the worst would come.

As he took a sip, Shinji could picture himself right in the cockpit of his entry plug, armed to the teeth and waiting for their foes to come. But how they look like? Do they bear resemblance to the ill-fated Unit-03, in which he nearly killed Toji? Or do they look more monstrous than Unit-01?

What about those who could invade the Geofront? In what form they might come?

Trying to answer those questions, Shinji then dimly remembered his history lessons, especially those concerning the Pacific War, as World War Two was referred to by most Japanese. More specifically, on the pages of government-published history textbooks there were brief passages about the American invasion of the island of Iwo Jima, followed by the assault on the island of Okinawa.

This time it was hard for him to imagine an immense army appearing out of nowhere, with all of their soldiers and tanks and planes arrayed in neat formations, their arsenal aimed squarely at this very building.

Wondering what was going on in the outside world, he went over to the television set and switched it on, only to find himself coming face to face with the newscaster, talking about the martial law declaration.

"What the…?" Shinji mumbled in near-astonishment as he listened.

_"…martial law is now in effect," the newscaster said, reciting off the Teleprompter, "which means that the entire country is under military control. To minimize civilian casualties in anticipation of a possible catastrophic disaster, which at this point in time has not been identified or explained by the government, a security cordon has also been drawn around the Hakone region, and all civilians living within the 80-kilometer danger zone are advised to evacuate immediately._

_"The Prime Minister has assured that the government is taking strict measures to contain and control the crisis, although they are not in liberty to disclose the exact nature of the calamity."_

Deciding not to hesitate any further, Shinji walked to the bed, and shook Asuka's shoulder.

"W… What?" the redhead moaned, trying to ignore him.

"Wake up," Shinji whispered. "Today's really bad."

Asuka cracked open an eye and stared at him. "What do you mean?" she quietly demanded as Shinji pointed his finger at the television, which prompted her to sit upright and stare at the tube.

"They declared martial law," he said.

Asuka couldn't believe what she was hearing from the newscaster. "What? Isn't it too fucking early?" she rudely remarked.

"Seems that they also knew what happened last night."

"Yeah, must be that damn spy who brought the word out," she said, but then noticed Shinji's half-full mug of cocoa. "Can you make one for me?"

Shinji nodded. "Sure," he said with a smile.

The young man walked to the kitchenette and prepared another for Asuka, before coming back and handed her the steaming mug. With Shinji sitting besides her, they drank slowly in unison as they listened to the broadcast.

"So what we should do about this?" Shinji asked while the anchorman droned on, exchanging words with a correspondent in downtown Tokyo-2.

"Scare them, I suppose," Asuka replied. "I know their bullets can only bounce off those Angels, and so do our Evas… But for the new Evas, I'm not sure about them, not unless Kaworu tells us more about them. Is Misato at the meeting?"

Shinji glanced at the wall clock. "Yeah, I think so," he said.

The Second Children rolled off the bed and stood up. "We're going," she said. "I'm not going to stick around, waiting for the bullets to fly."

"But… I've yet to go to sleep," Shinji relented.

"No procrastination this time, dummy," Asuka chided, as she grabbed her towel and went into the bathroom. "Not when the shit's about to hit the fan," she added.

* * *

At the Infirmary, in one of its rooms, heavily guarded by Second Section men in full combat gear, Gendo Ikari was unconscious to the world, his whole body bound to the bed by nylon straps, his right wrist hand-cuffed to the side railings, and his left hand was completely wrapped in bandage. An IV tube ran from the bottle to his left shoulder, and so far the sedative in his bloodstream kept him in artificial slumber.

Through the thick glass window, Tsutomo Kanzaki observed the ousted ex-Commander, wondered what demons had told him to transform from a complete nobody to a very powerful leader. He also imagined what that man's life was once used to be before the transformation of personality.

Maybe, he thought, Misato has all the dirt on Ikari, so that he could study them later and to understand his motivations for single-handedly creating a powerful quasi-military entity from out of a lightly-staffed research body.

"You want some coffee?" a voice asked Tsutomo, and he swung around to see Takako Chigusa with a can of coffee; she was also dressed in her usual nursing uniform.

Tsutomo shook his head. "No, it's okay, I already had one minutes ago," he said. "Where's Doctor Odani?"

"She's now on her way to the meeting," Takako answered.

"Ah," Tsutomo said. "How's it going?"

"Nothing eventful since the operation; did my usual rounds, and so far some of your agents are okay," she said, referring to the dozen or so men who were wounded during the attack on Asuka's convoy days earlier, and now recuperating from their injuries.

"I see. Do you have any family?"

Takako nodded. "Yeah," she answered. "I have a family back in Kagawa; a sister in high school and two of my parents." Kagawa was a small city located on the island of Shikoku.

"How they're doing?"

"They're all fine, but I'll try to call them later."

Tsutomo blinked. "Why not now?"

"Okay," Takako said before she glanced at the unconscious Ikari behind the window. "I wonder what would be his reaction once he wakes up," she remarked, knowing that earlier she participated in the surgery.

"Along with his ouster, he could be in for a very rude awakening."

Only then they heard the PA announce the declaration of Code Orange, along with an urgent notice for all available personnel to attend the emergency general meeting at the base auditorium.

* * *

Meanwhile, the JSDF general was burly, stood five-foot-six tall, fifty-five years old, dressed in the standard Type II flecktarn pattern-green BDU, and on his blouse had the kanji for his name, _MG __Yamamoto_, stitched onto the nametape.

At the moment, his division stationed at a staging point in the outskirts of Mishima, Major General Minoru Yamamoto of the Eastern Army's 1st Division, a distant blood relative of the famous admiral who took over the Pacific almost overnight, was surveying the verdant mountains that shielded Hakone from the rest of the world, making the volcanic caldera a natural, seemingly impenetrable fortress.

Standing alongside him was his aide, a lieutenant-colonel named Urusawa, and as they stared up at the mountains, with rows of tanks and APCs parked behind them, they were drinking from cans of coffee and smoking cigarettes.

Yamamoto took a drag from his cigarette, and exhaled. He then pointed at the peaks and remarked, "You know, I never thought this is going to happen in my lifetime."

"Why, sir?" Urusawa asked. The younger officer was assigned to Yamamoto two months before, so right now he was going to receive an anecdote.

"I was there almost a year before," the general began, "the first and only time, with Ito and Kutaragi sitting our asses at the command bridge, with Commander Ikari watching right behind us, when that fucking Angel wiped out three armored brigades and two gunship squadrons right before our very eyeballs. All that after we threw everything and even the kitchen sink tipped with an N2 warhead, right on top of that Angel's head. We were all upset for the rest of the time, right until that kid and his Eva went up there and put the damned thing out of its misery… in a few minutes."

Urusawa nodded.

"Later that night," Yamamoto went on, "we were so damn mad that we took ourselves to drink, blamed ourselves and wondered what the fuck we have to tell to the weeping mothers and girlfriends who lost their boys right there… Told them later they fought bravely, almost enough for those boys to earn a spot at Yasukuni."

The general and his aide paused for a moment to finish the coffee and cigarettes, and then threw the dregs into an open fifty-five gallon drum. Yamamoto then composed himself and took a deep breath.

"Now here's the big deal: we're about to launch the biggest offensive since Pearl Harbor, and we're going to shut them down if they don't do what The Man says. That is, we'll have to take out first the people operating and fixing the Evas."

"Excuse me, sir, but are you saying you do have some doubts about this operation?" Urusawa asked, as a trio of helicopter gunships roared over their heads.

The question almost caught Yamamoto off-guard, prompting him to think for a moment, amidst the din of the boots of marching companies stomping as they went, tanks rumbling to life as they prepare to leave their parking spaces, and helicopters taking off from their landing pads.

"No… It's not that," the general said at last. "I mean, since that first day there, on and off I've been working with those guys, especially with that Katsuragi woman, and… Basically they're good, smart people, but personally… between that and the bad news we got on NERV, as much as we have done some good rapport with these people in the past, I'm afraid that, within less than twenty-four hours… we'll have no option but to destroy them _first_ before they could destroy us all."

_And __once __I__'__m __done __with __this __killing __business,_ Yamamoto concluded in his thoughts, _that__'__s __it, __I__'__m __going __to __toss __in __the __resignation __letter __right __on __the __PM__'__s __desk, __pack __up __my __junk __and __haul __ass __back __to __Yubari._

* * *

They were nearly finished dressing up when Shinji, almost having his white sneakers tied, heard the knocking on the door.

"Check who's outside," Asuka said while buttoning up her pink shirt right in front of the mirror; she was also wearing a pair of jeans and Keds.

Nodding, Shinji walked over to the door and opened it, to find Misato standing before the threshold, with Ritsuko, Kaworu and Rei behind her.

"Uh… You're picking us up?" Shinji asked.

"That's right," Misato answered as they walked in, and she set the bagged steel box on the floor. "How did you know we're coming?"

"Martial law's declared on TV," Asuka answered, before she noted that Kaworu's arm was whole again, so in awe she said, "Wow, how that happened? I mean, what happened to your arm? The last time I saw it I thought it looked pretty hopeless it could've taken up to a year."

"It's regeneration, my dear," Kaworu answered with amusement as he showed his completed left arm. "Has to do with my physiology, which is different from a normal human being, but that doesn't mean I'm invincible."

"I see," Asuka said.

Somewhat still famished, the Fifth Children then espied a pair of filled melon buns (_melopan_) on the dinner table. "May I have one?" he asked. "I'm really hungry."

"No big deal," the redhead said before Kaworu thanked her, picked up one of them from the table, tore open the plastic packaging, before he sank his teeth into the bun.

"Even Angels have their own limits," Rei added as she hugged Shinji. "Good morning, my brother."

Shinji blushed. "Thanks," he replied before he resumed tying his sneakers. "Have you slept?"

Rei shook her head. "No, I merely dozed for an hour while keeping an eye on him."

"All right, let's get to the point, boys and girls," Misato finally chimed in. "Right now, no meeting, but instead we're all heading to the auditorium for a full-blown briefing. Everyone's needed to be there because that's where we're going to decide the future of the world."

"And everything falls on me, right?" Shinji asked, a bit of trepidation within his heart.

"Yeah," Misato agreed. "But you're not alone, for we're all in the same boat as you do, and it's shared danger."

* * *

**Author****'****s ****Notes:** I apologize for the very long gap, due to many distractions contributing to my writer's block, including a personal malaise that plagued me for weeks. Within the period I had to imagine hard, trying to find a way to get this chapter going when I decided to go from scratch and write straight ahead.

There's a change in this chapter; for the sake of consistency, identification and realism, instead of the black combat uniforms used by the JSDF in EoE, I chose the real-life standard flecktarn camo uniform as utilized by those forces.

OBTW, Yubari is a mining town in the northern island of Hokkaido.


	43. Unilateral Declaration of Defiance

Back at the staging base in Siberia, Keel Lorenz was in his office, sitting behind his desk and reading one of several reports for the day, when he heard someone knocking on his door.

"Come in," the old man said.

The door slid open and a robed man entered. He then stood before the desk and cleared his throat.

"So?" Keel said.

"There is a development in the situation," the acolyte said. "The Prime Minister has declared martial law, which means they're acting ahead without our authorization."

Keel frowned. "What?"

"He has placed the military on full alert, including those pre-positioned around Tokyo-3, which means at any moment they could attack. We have also intercepted and decrypted a fax that was sent to NERV headquarters." The acolyte then produced a sheet of paper and placed it on the desk, which Keel picked up and read.

"So… He wants Ikari on a silver platter and NERV to surrender everything," Keel said. "Well, fine, let him have it and if possible, make things easier for us should they're done with destroying the base and everything in it."

The acolyte nodded. "Master, what do you wish to for us to do next?"

Keel reached out for the phone on his desk and began dialing the number for Colonel Quaritch.

"Yes?" the man at the other end of the line answered.

"Prepare your men," Keel said. "We will attack tomorrow at dawn."

"They are already at standby, sir," Quaritch answered. "We also know that the Russian Pacific Fleet has left Vladivostok yesterday morning and due to arrive near Sagami Bay by 0900 hours tomorrow, with the ballistic missile subs coming in there first. The Japanese will assume that the fleet will be on their annual readiness exercises in international waters, but not until we give them the order to attack."

"Good," Keel approved. He then made a mental note to set up a final meeting at the holographic conference room at two in the afternoon; he intended to confront Gendo Ikari, not knowing that his enemy has already been removed from office.

* * *

**END ****OF ****EVANGELION: **_**BLOOD**__** AND**__** WATER  
THE **__**FINAL**__** SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 43: UNILATERAL DECLARATION OF DEFIANCE  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 11/24/2011 22:18 a11/p11

* * *

The immense auditorium, located two levels below the ground, was spacious enough to accommodate as many as 10,000 people in one sitting. It had seen its share of big events, including concerts, academic lectures and symposiums, film showings, and other special occasions.

At this moment it was now full, with everyone on their feet, talking and speculating, debating and arguing the uncertainty they were facing. Some of them voiced their concerns and fears, worried about their families or for their own lives. Others nervously talked of the impending assault, with the _Jietai_ now in full control of the country.

* * *

Backstage, Misato stood before Commander Fuyutsuki, wearing a grim expression on his face, the burden of official responsibility now on his shoulders. The Children flanked her as they listened to their conversation; the other officers and division chiefs likewise ringed around them, ready to take mental notes.

"So Colonel," Fuyutsuki said. "It seems that the Prime Minister is acting ahead of schedule."

"That's right, sir," Misato replied sourly. "Probably one of the spies gave him forewarning and even told about this morning's uproar. Yes, he's in Keel's payroll, but judging from his initial moves, I'd say the government is acting independently of SEELE's control."

Director Hamamoto stepped forward and added, "There's something I like to say about Oda's phone, sir."

"Yes?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"We found that one of the numbers in his phone has been traced to an unlisted number, which is somewhere in Tokyo-2," Hamamoto reported. "That phone turned out to a number belonging to the Ministry of the Interior, which explains why the Prime Minister has gone forward on his own initiative."

"So we're too late, right?" Misato said. "He pushed the panic button."

"Damn late yes, like we're locking the barn door after the horse got away, but time is still on our side, even if we only have a day left to prepare," the former naval intelligence officer said.

"We can speculate further," Fuyutsuki said to Misato, "but for now we have to keep on eye on the _Jietai,_ and at the same time I hope you have finally come up with a contingency plan for this eventuality."

Misato nodded. "It's in my head since two days ago, sir," she said. "I studied this scenario just after I reckoned that the Committee would be doing something really nasty on us, what with the evidence Kaji had on them, including their future objectives."

"I see. How this plan of yours be executed?"

"Basically, what we need to protect, sir," Misato replied, "are several: the MAGI and the command center, the Evas, Lilith down below Terminal Dogma, and of course, Adam. These must not fall into enemy hands should they attack in force, and we're not going to let them have it all with their dirty paws. So I'm going to give them the truth and explain everything to them," she said, pointing at her would-be audience outside, before she turned to Makoto. "Get my laptop and the projector ready."

Makoto nodded. "Will do," he said.

* * *

Now Misato walked onto the stage and stood behind the rostrum. With a video camera trained on her (for live video streaming, just in case if some can't attend the meeting), she then shuffled her notes and tapped on the microphone, which quickly took the attention of her would-be audience, as they were hushed into near silence.

At the same time Makoto was busy setting up the projector at the far end of the auditorium, hooking it up to her laptop before turning both of them on.

"Good morning, people," Misato spoke aloud, her voice carried over by the PA system. "Today, as you are aware of the situation we're facing right now, I understand that some of you have doubts, fears and feelings of uncertainty, so it leaves me no choice except to explain carefully."

Several people in the audience were loudly asking her what was going on.

"Early this morning," Misato continued, "an Angel attempted to make contact with Lilith, but failed after being neutralized by Unit One, and at the same time, former Commander Ikari was arrested for treasonable acts which could have brought us to catastrophe.

"However, about thirty minutes ago, and as most of you have known, the Prime Minister has declared martial law, and also sent us an ultimatum demanding the surrender of this base and the Evas under our possession. As of now, any rights and special protection we have in the name of the United Nations has been rendered null and void, and should we do not comply with their demands, they shall use lethal force with extreme prejudice."

Immediately explosions of outrage and disbelief went up in reaction:

"They WHAT?"  
"It can't be! That's not our government!"  
"They can't do this to us!"  
"Impossible... Are they mad?"

But Misato held up her hand to calm them down.

"Let me finish, ladies and gentlemen," she said. "The government isn't the only party asking for our surrender, for we have the Human Instrumentality Committee to deal with."

Again, most of her audience wondered what she was talking about.

"The Committee, also known as SEELE, our supposed benefactors providing us the money to maintain and operate the Evas, have decided that we're dangerous, expendable and therefore they're preparing to assault this base."

This time the auditorium exploded in anger and disbelief, forcing Misato to take off one of her shoes and use it as a gavel, repeatedly pounding its heel hard on the rostrum.

"Listen to me!" Misato pleaded. "I have not come here to give you a really bad scare, but you have to bring your ears to understand what we have to do with this double threat. I'm not joking, I'm not making this crap up, we have the proof of their treachery, the threat is very real and we have to calm down first and put our heads together, so again just listen!"

Now her audience quieted down, which allowed her to sigh for a moment and take a deep breath.

"Thank you," Misato said in a calm voice, before continuing. "According to available intelligence, all confirmed by other parties, with the government's A801 order that effectively voids all of our rights, protections and privileges, should we refuse cooperation, either one of these forces will use all means necessary; they will throw anything they have, including N2-tipped missiles, chemical or biological weapons just to capture this base. As if all that isn't enough, SEELE will launch their Evas against ours."

As Misato had expected, more shocked voices came from her audience as the screen now presented several pictures of the Mass Production Evas, now digitally enhanced for clarity.

"While the _Jietai_ lay siege on this base," she continued, "we believe that, apart from SEELE's private army possibly to be air-dropped, nine of these enemy Evas will be landed by their carriers to attack our Eva units, and each of these invaders are most likely to be powered by S2 Engines and controlled by Dummy Plugs of their own design, and furthermore, they will be armed with false Spears."

Murmurs of incredulity came up.

"With a combination like that, it wouldn't be long before we'll be facing hell, but we still have the fortune of having enough time to prepare ourselves for the worst," Misato spoke, before she gestured to Makoto to bring up the digitized tactical map representing the entire Hakone region, shown on the white screen using a projector connected to her laptop.

Arrows and lines intersected the map, marking the paths in red where the JSDF would be taking in their wake of destruction, while blue squares and lines represented NERV strongholds and defense lines.

"The most likelihood for a spearheading attack would be against our communication links coming in and out of this base, any satellites we have currently in orbit, and the MAGI itself, which could be attacked by SEELE hackers, and I can't let out the possibility that elite units would be sent in to neutralize our defenses and communications by stealth. Their electronic warfare aircraft would also flood the whole area with ECM, effectively voiding some of our sensors and radar, and they would follow it up with anti-radiation missiles to destroy or disable them."

The projector now displayed the full order of battle, listing the current order of battle of JSDF units pre-positioned at the moment.

"Judging from the disposition of their forces," Misato said, "I'm sure that they'll send in at least three or four hard-core armored and infantry divisions through Nagao and Hakone Pass, and blow up the defense lines in Gora and Komatagake, plus several squadrons from Mishima and other airbases to lay down some bombs and missiles, and possible naval bombardment from either Suruga or Sagami Bay. Afterwards, they will send forward the infantry and armored units, destroying anything in their path. With that amount of firepower, it's enough to level everything here to rubble and leave nothing but a howling wilderness."

Now the audience once again erupted in debate and colorful commentary.

"But first," Misato spoke, quieting them down again. "We have to negotiate with the government; we have to explain to them everything, we have to convince them of the dangers that SEELE could do, and release all of that information to the rest of the world by exposing their complicity and their conspiracy to endanger mankind."

"You mean we want the government to turn to our side?" one of the men from the audience asked aloud. "Sounds impossible, ma'am."

"We have the proof that SEELE is responsible for Second Impact," Misato said as she hefted Kaji's steel box onto the rostrum, before whipping out the SD card. "I also have the digital version of these documents in this box, and we will send all of them to every news agency, government and whistleblower on the face of the planet. All of what's inside this box will change their minds, to bring the world to stop their nefarious scheme."

"And where is Commander Ikari?" asked a man in a lab coat, a ranking division chief.

"I'm sorry to say this, but for those who haven't got the word," Misato said. "Commander Fuyutsuki is now in charge, starting today."

Someone from the audience, a ranking major from the security forces, raised his hand and asked, "So, Colonel, what do you want us to do?"

"Good question," Misato said. "Here's how we should do."

* * *

She began to explain that the defense of the Geofront would involve several tight rings of protection, placing the Pyramid in the center.

The first line of defense required the blocking of roads, passes and tunnels, using explosives to create landslides or destroy them completely, thus forcing the enemy to find another way in.

Next was the protection of the exposed main gate, with heavy weapon emplacements and fortifications; with the other gates obliterated with explosives, and leaving one or two gates intact, this would create a deadly funnel for attackers, as they stumble into the kill zone.

Should the gate defenses could not hold up against the enemy and thus fall and forcing a retreat, the third line would require the construction of a no-man's land, with a clearing two hundred meters wide, an anti-tank ditch, followed by an array of hedgehogs, concertina wire, abandoned vehicles, and debris from the buildings that fell into the Geofront.

Near the perimeter of the Pyramid, they will have to position defensive missile and artillery emplacements, the former to protect the complex from air attacks, the latter to shell the enemy. Machine gun nests will have to be created to deal with enemy infantry, with wide fields of fire for which to inhibit their movement.

But if this perimeter be breached, they will have to withdraw and turn the labyrinth of the complex into a nightmarish entanglement, with more traps and hidden defensive emplacements to keep the enemy at bay, and if necessary flood and block the occupied corridors with Bakelite.

Meanwhile, armed and prepared, the Evas will be launched to deal with the enemy Evas and destroy them immediately, using any available weapons, until none of them should be left standing.

* * *

"Now if there's so many of them, how could we fight them off?" a young officer asked afterwards.

"I propose that anyone with actual combat experience or at least able to pick up a gun and shoot should volunteer," Misato replied. "We need more to help defend this base, as our security forces are insufficient to hold the enemy at bay."

"And what about those who cannot?" another questioned.

"We will try later to negotiate with the government, if they could listen to us, to allow safe passage for noncombatants," she answered. "We cannot afford to put some of our people in harm's way, but should things don't work out well in our favor, the only other option is to evacuate noncombatants down below Central Dogma, at Level 42. That's where the discarded Evas are stored, but it's well-protected and should be easy to defend.

"Those volunteering to defend the base will be issued with weapons and then be trained as quickly as possible," Misato went on. "SRT units will also be deployed at our most vulnerable spots around the complex. Furthermore, some of you may have any knowledge that we could use to make improvised weapons to supplant the ones we have in limited quantities, so I need volunteers with good experience in creating bombs and jury-rigged arms. Finally, we will have to make do with anything in our inventory to keep this base from being captured."

Briefly Misato turned to Fuyutsuki, who was standing at the backstage, and noted that the old man looked as if he wanted to say something, so she announced, "The Commander would like to have a few words for all of us, so this would be a great opportunity for him."

Without a word Misato walked away from the rostrum, and then Fuyutsuki took over her spot, adjusted the microphone, and cleared his throat.

* * *

The last time Fuyutsuki confronted a sizeable audience was back when he conducted lectures in the University of Kyoto. Vividly, he remembered one of those times, a day in September and a year before the Impact, standing behind a lectern, his eyes all on his listeners, with half of them preparing to jot down notes, another half almost dozing on their desks, and a small percentage at the back, boys whispering about their girlfriends, last night's drinking session, and of course, some sex on the side.

He could also recall the suit he wore then, a gray suit, necktie and polished leather brogues; the lectern before him was filled with notes he had written last night, matters on metabiology he would like to expound and dissect with his pupils' participation.

For a moment, he flicked his wrist to check on his watch, a stainless-steel Seiko that his parents gave to him as a gift upon receiving the diploma some twenty years ago, before they died in a bus accident five years later.

The hands on the dial told him it was seven-fifty-five in the morning, and then his eyes darted to the wall clock at the far end of the room, comparing them, and became satisfied with their synchronization.

Just as he was about to speak, Fuyutsuki could sense, rather than hear, the door open. He turned to the left to see Yui Ikari walking in; she was wearing a brown sweater, black skirt and a pair of leather boots.

"_Good morning, Professor," she said before bowing. "I apologize for being a bit late; got myself caught in traffic."_

"_I see," Fuyutsuki replied. "You're just in time, Miss Ikari."_

_Relieved, Yui smiled at him. "Thank you, sir."_

* * *

Now, more than fifteen years later, Fuyutsuki was once again facing an even larger audience, but this time to address a very urgent crisis not seen in mankind's existence. Thus the speech will have to be brief and direct to the point, simple and easy to understand, yet should be able to galvanize and uplift spirits of those with feelings of despair and doubt.

He had to be in the shoes of embattled Churchill, no doubt about it, and so he straightened out, took a deep breath and spoke.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," he said calmly, like a concerned father talking to his children. "I have a reason to be here right now, by the grave urgency of the problem we're up against.

"First of all, I am a mere teacher then and still a scientist to this day, a man dedicated to pure science, not warfare and destruction; I am never enamored with violence nor wished for it, preferring that I devote my time and effort in the exploration of the unknown and, like all scientists, to pursue and impart knowledge for the benefit of humanity's advancement.

"But, like a priest whose village is threatened by bandits, I could not stand by as a mute witness worthy of a docile sheep; I could not afford to watch my villagers cower in fear and unable to fight back, as their homes are ransacked and burned, and as their wives and daughters raped and killed before my eyes.

"That is a vision that I do not wish to see," Fuyutsuki said, as his eyes surveyed the audience. "I intend that I do not want anyone under my command be needlessly killed for nothing, all the while the Committee prepares the tools to hasten the Human Instrumentality Project, a false hope which brings about the end of our existence as we know it, an abyss which we may not be able to escape from.

"Instead, like a shepherd endeavoring to protect his flock from wolves with a slingshot and a bag of stones, it gives me no choice except for us, you and I, to take arms and defend ourselves, should the world does not believe in the truth of the Second Impact, the true objectives of Chairman Lorenz and of SEELE, and the penultimate goal of Instrumentality: the destruction of mankind by means of devolution into a single protoplasmic entity.

"Hence, what they are about to do would be an act of treason on a global scale, declaring war on humanity and life itself, so those who have the courage to stand up and fight to end their scheme once and for all, I am with you, not as the Supreme Commander of NERV, but as a citizen of humanity, a commoner among many; I shall devote every cell of my mind and body for this final battle, should it ever to happen and all peaceful and diplomatic efforts, warning governments of the world with the truth we have to end this madness, do not bring fruit.

"I understand that the coming hours will be difficult, for we will labor in preparations; if violence erupts, there will also be the possibility of some of us will die, but should we, even I, die trying to stop them from making their plans happen, it would be at least a consolation for our souls, should we ever have the ability to remember, that we have tried our best to defend mankind's existence.

"So I hope, just as you do, not for a perfect, sinless world that is wholly pure and yet empty, but rather a world in which we can all live in, with our hearts beating, no matter how much it is stained in sin… and considering that tomorrow will be the birth anniversary of one of the greatest martyrs in history, we will embody hope for the rest of the world, we will bring peace on our terms, we will fight, not against tyranny or persecution, but total extinction.

"If we ever emerge victorious, that will be the finest Christmas gift to the world for us to give! We will move on, we will survive, WE WILL LIVE!"

Only then Fuyutsuki heaved his chest with great relief, glad that he did the first step in boosting spirits, as the auditorium exploded in cheers, whistles and applause.

* * *

By the time Fuyutsuki returned to the backstage, he was greeted with more applause, with some clapping their hands on his back, congratulating and thanking him, for there was a leader who promised to stand alongside them. He then had to receive handshakes offered to him, which he profusely accepted; even he felt his spirits upraised, infusing him new energy and will that could sustain him for the hours ahead.

"Sir," Hamamoto said as he shook the new Commander's hand. "That's a great speech you came up with!"

"Thank you, Director," Fuyutsuki said.

Hamamoto nodded. "You know, sir, I'm not in doubt about you at all; you have now my respect. Let's show the bastards what we can do."

Fuyutsuki chuckled. "That's fine," he replied, before he turned his attention to Misato, who was standing alongside the Children under her command. "Colonel," he said.

"Yes, sir?" Misato said.

The old man gave her a wistful smile and replied, "You're the woman with the plan, so let's get started right now."

Misato saluted at Fuyutsuki. "Yes, sir… and it's a honor for me to serve alongside you," she said.

Now the old man brought his eyes at Shinji and the rest of the Children, and he said, "As for you, young man…"

Shinji blinked. "Pardon me, sir?"

"There will be always people like her and me and the rest of us who will stand along with all of you Children," he said before offering an open hand.

"Thank you, sir," Shinji said as they shook hands. "I'll never forget that… and I promise I'll not run away this time."

* * *

**Author****'****s****Notes:**Sorry if it's short and I focused mostly on both Misato and Fuyutsuki, but I want to set the tone for things to come, and what they would be expecting. Furthermore and always there are distractions left and right, and thus it took much willpower to concentrate on writing.

Fuyutsuki's speech was inspired by two movie speeches, both from _Independence__ Day_ and _Armageddon_, as well as those famous wartime speeches in history, especially those of Churchill and Roosevelt, who needed to rouse their nations from shock and terror.

More to come, people… and as always, thank you for reading and your faith, they always remind me that there's a fic that needs to be given a proper closure.


	44. Consensus

_And she was really beat-up this time, dust clouds kicked up around and over her head, as Misato Katsuragi, then a second lieutenant, coughed and wheezed while lying on her back, having been slammed down to the German ground, as trainees in BDUs, ringing around the combatants as spectators, cheered and hollered loudly at her to get up again and try to take a shot again at the opponent._

_Momentarily Misato had a glimpse of blue sky right above her, before snapping her head down for eyes to lock on her opponent, who still stood with his feet almost apart, fists clenched, chest heaving, sweat dripping in rivulets and completely soaking his olive-drab tank-top, his face dirtied, crew-cut hair glistening in the light, and lips forming an arrogant smirk._

_Colonel Miles Quaritch._

_True to his word, the old-man sonofabitch was totally unbeatable, despite that Misato held a brown-belt in aikido, a martial art she first learned at _Todai_ (Tokyo-2 University) and then later at the Defense Academy on Miura Island (which broke off the mainland, the rift first splitting through Kamakura and ending at what was left of Yokohama, the island effectively a byproduct of the Second Impact)._

_Momentarily with a probing tongue assessing for battle damage, Misato tasted something coppery in her mouth. Oh, a cut lip or a loose tooth, and she hoped it was the former or she may have to visit the training camp's infirmary the next morning and have the dentist fix it. _

_But for now she pushed herself upward, to a sitting position, and spat on the dirt, a crimson-tinted saliva stain the size of a coin, before using her left arm to wipe the blood off across the lips._

_Her conscience was in a dilemma, deciding whether she could keep on going or throw the towel right here and now; if she could finish this impromptu smoker match, Misato could be the first woman trainee in this camp to win the prize money, about several thousand Euros chipped in, no strings attached, and what she could do with this hunk of cash?_

_More genuine German beer at the roadhouse _bierstube_ outside the Global Protection Enterprises training base, of course, and sloshing in real frosted-cold mugs, and make herself and the rest of her class intoxicated than all of Fort Lauderdale's college population during Spring Break, or given her nationality, more than the number of drunken-old-businessmen-with-tie-around-their-heads _oyaji_ in what used to be Roppongi during midnight._

"_Still feeling soft, Lieutenant?" Quaritch chided, hard and disapproving eyes staring back at Misato as he smacked his lips. "I could taste that beer, lady."_

_Misato then heard catcalls and laughter from the watching trainees, as Quaritch flexed and cracked his knuckles._

"Kuso,"_ she spat out, the native, all-purpose cuss word being the closest thing to _fuck you, sonofabitch_._

_In wordless, mocking response and in imitation of the late Bruce Lee by twitching the fingers inwardly on his right hand, Quaritch gestured to Misato to get up on her feet, which she did, dusting herself and flexing the neck sideways, giving out an impression she could go for another round._

_As cheers and hoots erupted around Misato, trainees' boots stomping on the ground, the old warrior nodded in approval._

"_Bring it on, Katsuragi," Quaritch dared with a mocking tone in his voice. "You're no more special except to fold some paper and arrange flowers."_

"_Just like I said before when I came here, I don't need special treatment, sir," Misato retorted._

_Quaritch suddenly grinned. "Well, I wonder if the only time you scream and cry is when you're in bed. Is that true?"_

_Momentarily Misato's face turned beet-red, as if somehow this man found out her personal life, and now told the world around her she was just as good for sex. This she took as an insult, and without thinking Misato suddenly charged forward at Quaritch, who was ready to give the young woman a fine thrashing._

_Again._

* * *

Quaritch opened his eyes, staring back at himself in the mirror, catching his breath as waterdrops slid down on his face, then depositing themselves onto the bottom of the sink. His nose, however, was overwhelmed by the sharp odor of his vomit.

He blinked, and then took a deep breath to recover himself before reaching out to a filled syringe containing the antidote needed to combat the growing pangs of a type 2 cancerous infestation threatening to cut down his system completely.

The otherwise healthy and impregnable military man then brought out a thick rubber cord, which he then used to tie his left arm to limit blood circulation, before picking up the syringe, pushing the plunger a little to remove any air bubbles.

Again with a deep breath, Quaritch eyed the invisible target on his left bicep, where the needle should be penetrating the correct blood vessel, then quickly stabbed the syringe in, driving the plunger until it was empty.

Pulling out the needle, and then covering the injection point with an alcohol-soaked pad using his right hand, Quaritch stood still, letting the antidote course its way through his system, until he could feel the nausea go away. Only then he can breathe easy, taking in more fresh air into his lungs.

Now he sorted out the thoughts he had in the few minutes prior to being assaulted by the early symptoms of the fatal disease gnawing into his body, and then the moment he puked into the basin, furious and ashamed of this small moment of weakness, cursing himself for not being able to catch this bug in time.

And then he wondered… No, he remembered fighting Misato Katsuragi in hand-to-hand combat under the withering German sun, with the dust, salty sweat, the iron odor of blood; the coppery taste of adrenaline and fury, if not fear.

"We'll be seeing each other soon enough," Quaritch told himself.

* * *

**END OF EVANGELION: **_**BLOOD AND WATER  
**__**THE FINAL SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 44: CONSENSUS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 5/6/2012 3:10 a5/p5

* * *

Summoned immediately after Fuyutsuki's speech, the division chiefs were walking briskly to the conference room designated for the emergency meeting. Some of them were very skeptical of Misato's findings, but they also wanted more evidence of SEELE's complicity.

Once they entered the room, Misato was waiting for them, holding Kaji's steel box in hand, and she was staring right into their eyes. Standing to her right was Shinji and Asuka; to her left was Fuyutsuki, Akagi, and Hamamoto, and to the right were Tsutomo and Natsumi.

Even Paul and Trudy were also present, along with their commanding officer of the air wing, Lieutenant Colonel Sherman Billings.

A tall African-American hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Billings was once a member of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). As a helicopter pilot of that regiment, Billings flew MH-60 Blackhawks and V-22 Ospreys during the Second Korean War, ferrying SEALs and Delta Force operators deep into enemy territory, and sometimes also participated in close-in air support using the Cheyenne gunship. After nearly twenty years of service, the Pentagon recommended him and his expertise to NERV in order to train and take command of that organization's small air wing.

But what surprised them was Kaworu Nagisa's presence, standing along with Rei, their hands clasped together.

"What the hell that kid's doing here?" one of the division chiefs loudly demanded, as his fellows stood in hesitation. "He's an Angel, right?"

Misato calmly nodded. "Yes," she said.

"But…?" the skeptical division chief stammered.

"Is it a problem?" Hamamoto asked as he pulled out a piece of paper and, fully unfurled, flashed it right into the chief's face. "All charges have been dropped, and therefore he's no longer a threat to this organization."

"He's really one of us now," Misato clarified. "Don't worry, he has already said sorry to me, and if you need any more convincing, well..."

And then without batting an eye, Misato upturned the box, pouring its contents over the table, dozens upon dozens of sheets and folders and photos fluttering down, stunning her audience.

The wide-eyed division chiefs stared at the pile on the table, and back to Misato, who then said, "Let's get started and sort all of this, shall we?"

They looked at each other in the eye, and after a moment faced Misato again and every one of them nodded.

She was right this time, and in overall command.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the senior division chiefs were flipping through pages, staring at photographs, and whispering quietly about the explosive revelations that the late spy had accumulated throughout his entire career as a triple agent. Their minds were now building up a sufficient picture of SEELE's capacity, clout and its global reach.

Although the table had cigarette ashtrays placed for convenience, for out of respect for the minors present, the habitual smokers reluctantly refrained from pulling out their packs to light up, so they had to weather the pangs of nicotine deprivation for as long as possible and make do with cans of coffee and boxes of nicotine patches.

As she watched them examine the files, Misato said, "All of it might not stop SEELE from carrying out their plans, but if we expose them with their pants down, this could give us the advantage we need the most."

Several of the chiefs nodded in agreement.

"So, what does this leaves us to do?" Hamamoto asked. "Of course, we'll be facing two possible opponents, unless we hope the _Jietai_ do an about-face, which is more of a snowball's chance in hell to me."

"All right… Before we begin refining our defense strategy, let's take a look at our assets," Misato said, nodding to Makoto to bring up the following data on the screen:

* * *

**DISPOSITION OF FORCES**

**NERV Ground Units:  
**Raytheon Patriot SAM/ABM PAC-3 Missile Launchers x 20  
Cadillac Gage Stryker APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) x 10 (opt: SAM, arty, anti-tank, ELINT, commo, command)  
Humvee Patrol Vehicle (with crew-served support gun) x 10  
Komatsu LAV (with crew-served support gun) x 20  
Humvee SAM (Surface-to-Air-Missile - Sparrow/AMRAAM) Defense Vehicles x 10  
Regular Patrol Vehicle x 20  
NERV Second Section Security Force x 1 battalion  
NERV Fifth Section Defense Line Force x 2 battalions

**NERV Air Units:  
**AV-24C Lockheed-Martin Cheyenne II Heavy Attack Gunship x 10  
CH-53R Sikorsky Heavy Helicopter Transport x 10  
MV-22D Agusta-Bell Pave Osprey Transport x 5  
UH-60F Sikorsky Blackhawk Medium Helicopter Transport x 15  
Predator Drone UAV x 10

* * *

"Right now," Misato said, pointing at the list, "This is what all we have, only a mere fraction compared to the guys at our doorstep, and with such a limited size, it's necessary that we have to improvise with whatever we have, creating force multipliers that would give us more time to survive."

Hamamoto, who was sitting rather in a relaxed manner, said, "History has taught us that being ill-prepared for the unexpected, along with lax security, has resulted in grave loss of lives and equipment. As we're the fine line between SEELE's plan for rearranging life as we know it, and salvation of the human race, they'll stop at nothing, unless we give them a bloody nose, which is why I, after this meeting, shall begin a training program to get as many volunteers to beef up our defense."

"Thank you, Director," Misato said.

Hamamoto nodded. "No problem, Colonel. It's my business that we should not leave ourselves to chance."

Misato's gaze wandered around the table. "Okay, what else do we have?"

Colonel Billings raised a hand.

"Yes, sir?"

Billings cleared his throat. "If you're wondering what's up with my division, except for the one Cheyenne we lost days ago to ground fire, the entire gunship fleet is otherwise in pretty good shape, at 90% availability. Our transports also have the same nice figures, thanks to our mechanics, spending enough time to maintain them almost like new." He then proudly produced a grin.

"Great, but what about the munitions?" Misato asked.

"Very ample," Billings said. "We still have 368 pieces of Hellfires, 52 sets of Hydras, and some twelve thousand 20mm rounds for the guns. All that is still enough to give enemy armor some thought, unless they start firing portable SAMs at us."

"You have countermeasures?"

"We've covered that already two days ago, retrofitting the gunships with emission control packages and more flare and chaff projectors."

Misato smiled. "Very impressive. Anything else, ladies and gentlemen?"

"I've made up a task list for the medical division," Natsumi said, rising from her seat. "My people will begin setting up field triage facilities for convenience and immediate access, but we'll also try our best to stockpile the medicines, equipment and supplies needed to meet casualty projections."

"Has the MAGI computed that figure?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Yes, and done that, sir, while everyone else were checking out those papers here," Natsumi said. "Given the odds, I'd say the figures could approach 70 percent, maybe even more."

Almost everyone in the room groaned.

"But we can try to bring that figure down further, as I'm assigning some of my people with military experience to work as medics in the field. They'll have to work alongside with the perimeter troops, and of course, should be able to shoot."

"I see," Fuyutsuki nodded. "It is very understandable that your division will be important should the balloon goes up."

"Thank you, sir." Natsumi then sat down.

A division chief on the left side of the table raised his hand, having put down his phone first. Misato read off his nameplate: Hanamura; this man was responsible for his division, which operated and maintained the perimeter defense batteries emplaced throughout the Hakone area of operations.

"Yes, Mister Hanamura?"

"I have personally instructed my men to get some of our best weapons off the defense lines, as many as they can bring in," Hanamura said. "That includes several heavy-caliber autocannons and missile launchers. Sure, they'll just bounce off an Angel like peas, but still more than enough to eat through tank armor, as the rounds are tipped with depleted uranium or tungsten."

"They're doing it right now?"

Hanamura nodded. "Yes, at this moment, Colonel, but do you have anything more on the opposition? I'd like to know what they could dish out on us."

Obliging Hanamura, Misato then nodded to Makoto, who then brought up the JSDF and the GPE/SEELE order of battle on the projection screen, before they began discussing about their potential adversaries.

* * *

The Strategic Self-Defense Force, but still referred to as _Jietai_, was borne out of the decision to amend Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, an American-drafted document which once put the military on a pacifist leash since World War Two, and in the wake of the destruction wrought by the Second Korean War.

Therefore, the _Jietai_ was no longer a heavily-armed "national police force" but a true standing army in the essence of the word, with personnel numbering more than half a million strong, some of them active duty, some others serving as reservists.

Since then, the _Jietai_, by leaps and bounds developed its own domestic arsenal, which in the beginning consisted mostly of license-produced copies of foreign weapon platforms, until it had one of the most powerful militaries in East Asia, second only to China yet comparable to Israel's highly-trained Defense Forces.

With Article 9 now revised without the pacifist provision in the 2004 Constitution, the _Jietai _was authorized, by parliamentary approval, to be deployed overseas in support of the United Nations, and if necessary provide active combat support to its allies. Despite some handful of lives lost in combat (and outrage from left-leaning and pacifist groups), the _Jietai_ acquired credible military experience not seen since World War Two, and this experience was then applied to their training regimen, especially on live-fire exercises at the barren land north of what was once Tokyo.

Their navy now possessed guided missile cruisers with firepower greater than the ill-fated imperial battleships _Yamato_ and _Musashi_; the army was equipped with heavy main battle tanks and attack helicopters; and the air force was sending aloft home-built stealth fighters on par with the F-22 Raptor, armed with long-range missiles.

But the _Jietai_, of course, had a dozen Non-Nuclear (N2) modular tactical weapons with a yield of up to three kilotons each, and they have used one before on the very first Angel assault (which didn't work but nonetheless the first detonation of a weapon of mass destruction on Japanese soil since Nagasaki).

* * *

The GPE, according to _Jane's All the World's Private Military Companies_, held the largest privately-held military force outside of any government. Founded in 1995, it has around 5,000 personnel, with more than half of them former servicemen of elite military forces, all under the current command of Colonel Miles Quaritch, once an officer in the elite Delta Force (US Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Delta).

Thanks to its connections to defense corporations, seeking interested parties to test their equipment, this company also had its own small navy (including missile boats armed with guided anti-ship Exocets), a small air force (consisting of MIG-29s, Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers, Israeli Kfirs, helicopter transports and attack gunships, notably the C-21 Dragon heavy gunship), and an armored battalion, with battle tanks, APCs and Amplified Mobility Platforms (called AMP suits, enabling a trooper to carry very powerful weaponry and other huge loads in a combat environment under all conditions).

Publicly, the GPE is noted in providing security for large multinational businesses and diplomatic posts operating in dangerous countries, as well as training the militaries of smaller nations. But for an extra cost, the GPE also covertly employs its forces in offensive operations at the request of their wealthy customers, including industrial espionage, assassination, kidnapping, smuggling, and sabotage.

Nevertheless, with Kaji's dossiers revealing its connections, GPE's main loyalty lay with SEELE, and therefore will be more than capable of carrying out Lorenz's mandate by brimstone and fire.

* * *

After the review, Hanamura shook his head in disbelief, and said, "Seems that the world is against us, eh?"

"Not necessarily," Misato replied, setting aside the folder that she was reading.

"How so?" Hananura doubted.

Fuyutsuki stood up and answered, "We have to send everything we know to the rest of the world, tell them what's really going on here, so excuse me, Mister Hyuga."

Makoto looked up, his eyes taken away from Misato's laptop, which he was using to monitor the newsfeeds around the globe.

"Yes, sir?" he asked.

"What's the current situation going on around us?" Fuyutsuki asked.

The junior officer used his finger to scroll down to read off items of interest.

"I've just found out that the Pacific fleet of the Russian navy had set sail for their annual winter exercises, supposedly a hundred or so kilometers away from Vladivostok," he said. "Or so their PR claims, but that can be of grave concern for us."

In reaction Fuyutsuki's forehead furrowed. "Go on," he said.

"Coincidentally," Makoto continued, "The Russian air force is also conducting extensive joint exercises with the Chinese, in Manchuria. They're running the usual lessons: close-in air support, bomber interception, air-to-air combat, and suppression of air defenses… and oh, another thing about the Committee members, sir."

"Pardon me?"

Makoto cleared his throat. "We have at least one very high-profile report about this Evgenyi Starayakov, who happens to be the head of the Russian petroleum consortium. His PR rep said he's taking a leave of absence due to medical reasons. He's not the only one getting off the grid, as several more of these fogeys are making excuses."

"Not good," Fuyutsuki remarked. "What about elsewhere? How the Americans, the Chinese and the Europeans are reacting to this?"

"Good thing you asked about it, sir," Makoto replied. "In the last three hours, our reconsats have picked up very high levels of communication traffic between their defense satellites, with some possibly making orbital adjustments to make passes right over us. There's some voice traffic too, with their ships at sea and at diplomatic outposts. But we haven't mentioned about our branches."

"Oh, I forgot them," Fuyutsuki said. "What are they doing right now?"

Makoto shook his head. "I'm sorry sir, we've repeatedly tried to contact them, but still no responses. Nothing from Cambridge, Frankfurt, or even Matsushiro, as if… they don't exist at all."

The chiefs grumbled in disappointment and anger.

Fuyutsuki sighed. "With their complicity in the development of the S2 Engine and the Dummy Plug," he said, "both finished without our knowledge, I'm not surprised, as they've even turned our branches against us."

"That's right, sir," Misato grimly agreed. "We're on our own now."

The old man took a moment to gaze his eyes on the chiefs and subordinates, and then spoke.

"Does anyone wishes us first to negotiate with the Prime Minister?" he asked, implying that he wanted an informal vote on the matter. Fuyutsuki turned to Misato, and added, "We have good reason why we should."

Misato nodded, then took out the SD card from her pocket and eyed it for a moment.

"He's right, we have to scare the hell out of the Prime Minister," she said. "Now, anyone who knows this guy, he's a lame duck in most cases, he's still taking heat from all sides since the last election, faltering on his promises, and worse, especially that little affair he had with some AV star."

Almost everyone in the room gave out chuckles, breaking the tense mood that permeated the air since the start of the meeting. The whole country knew of the Prime Minister's public gaffe, which nearly forced him to resign.

"The Chairman may boast that he has everything in his pockets," Misato said. "But in reality not all will agree to his wishes, for men have their own minds and can decide on the basis of their strengths and weaknesses. Some, like the Prime Minister, are sitting on the fence, seeing who would have the upper hand, and naturally they will go to the winning side with the most advantages.

"Now, I'm not saying that we can win easily, but our fates – and ultimately, of humanity – depends on who would join or fight us, and the leaders of the world have their reputations on the line, dependent on the people they serve.

"As our forces are limited in experience, size and firepower, and even with the Evas as our trump cards, if we do not succeed in winning the hearts and minds of those politicians, it will be the end of everything we fight for, and the victory we want will be snatched completely in the Chairman's favor.

"However, try as he might to proclaim he is the most powerful man on Earth, and hence confident in the power of his Evas, munitions and minions, Chairman Lorenz still has his own doubts eating at his will, impatient and hungry, blinded by his own power and avarice, and I'm pretty sure he's looking at us, thinking, scheming, trying to come up ways to destroy us several times over, and he fears losing the opportunity to remake the world as he sees fit. Furthermore, there will be many factors that are beyond his control, just like Kaworu right here."

Kaworu nodded in acknowledgement.

"But if we could have the rest of the world on our side, and with a little luck if we play our cards right," Misato continued, "and win and survive this altogether, I'm really sure a new age will dawn upon mankind."

"And soon you'll become a schoolteacher, neh?" Tsutomo quipped, recalling their earlier conversation that was interrupted by the roadside ambush.

Misato grinned as others laughed lightly. "Make no mistake, Tomo, I'll be there," she said before nodding at Fuyutsuki, who then cleared his throat.

"Those who agree, you may raise your hands," Fuyutsuki finally said. "If we have to survive longer, let's put a lot of pressure on the world's governments, especially the Prime Minister and many others like him."

Without hesitation, everyone, including the chiefs, showed their hands up, and Misato counted them, before she faced Fuyutsuki and nodded.

There was now an unanimous agreement: everyone said "yes".

Misato then turned to Makoto, who was still perusing her laptop, connected to the Internet, to monitor the news feeds and the current status of the entire base.

"Let's upload all of this to Wikipee," she said, "email it all to every news agency on the planet, fax it out to anywhere from the Kremlin to the White House. Spam the globe with it, no questions asked, no holds barred."

Makoto nodded. "Sure, the lines are still open," he said. "Except for the MAGI-specific network protocols, which have been locked down for the duration."

She then gave the SD card to him, placing it squarely into his open palm.

"I want you to set the world on fire," Misato said, not knowing that they were almost the same words that St. Ignatius of Loyola once proclaimed hundreds of years ago.

With a mere nod Makoto slipped the memory card into the reader slot, and began to work.

* * *

For its data and voice communication needs on a daily basis, NERV Main Headquarters Japan was exclusively serviced with six dedicated 38-gigabit OC-768 SONET fiber-optic lines provided jointly by NTT and KDDI, enabling the organization to send and receive massive amounts of data in terabytes, mostly between the MAGI supercomputers installed in every major NERV base, using the proprietary and heavily-encrypted MAGI-TCP/IP protocol, personally developed and deployed by the late Doctor Naoko Akagi.

A portion of this monster bandwidth, a 1-Gbit block, was devoted for standard TCP/IP networking, which was just as heavily secured by a triple firewall, a proxy, a DMZ, and a black-hole filter, all of it also created by Akagi to meet and exceed existing security standards, allowing smaller computers and associated networks to access the Internet safely at very high speeds.

To augment the existing fiber-optic connections, especially during emergencies should the hardened mainlines are rendered inoperable or destroyed, NERV had its own satellite communications network, called NERVSTAR, with four satellites covering every quarter of the planet in geosynchronous orbit (at 35,786 km above the surface of the Earth). To use this other network, an aboveground satellite dish farm was installed on top of one of the Hakone peaks, linked to HQ via fiber-optic link.

With Maya and Shigeru assisting him, in a few minutes Makoto had organized and compressed all of Kaji's files into a single ZIP 4 gigabytes in size, roughly the same size of a DVD, then opened up an email program that he would then compose a message and attach the ZIP file.

Using a bot program which collected all the email addresses of every major government and agency in the world, as well as several more belonging to many news agencies and known whistleblowers, and compiled them into a list, Makoto pasted the list into the "To" field, and typed the following message:

* * *

_My name is Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga, a staff officer belonging to the Special Agency NERV, General Headquarters Japan, and on behalf of Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, who has authorized this course of action, I have sent this message to you with the utmost urgency._

_To anyone who receives this message, what you will have is a file containing all information concerning the Second Impact and the organization responsible for its occurrence. Although the original source and compiler of this information is now dead, murdered in cold blood, the contents of this file can still be confirmed for authenticity against existing documentation, including those in the public domain, or considered incriminating and therefore highly classified and kept secret from the public._

_Anyone who possesses this information must disseminate it as quickly as possible, for the world to know that the secret organization known as SEELE, through its armed forces by proxy, would soon assault this base and possibly kill all of its personnel and take possession of the Evangelions for their illicit use, to initiate a Third Impact that could possibly spell the end of mankind as we know it, with more destruction than Second Impact._

_To those in higher office, may we hope that with this information you could act decisively to help us stop SEELE from trying to seize control of this base, for in your hands is the fate of humanity._

_Only the truth can save us now._

* * *

Makoto turned to Fuyutsuki and Misato, who were watching him compose the message for the last few minutes, and for approval he asked, "What do you think?"

"Very good," Fuyutsuki said after scanning the finished message. "That will give them a very rude awakening, so send it."

"Yes sir," Makoto answered, and with his hand guiding the mouse, he clicked on the SEND button.

* * *

The message, with its voluminous attachment, left the room at near the speed of light, to the main datacenter, where, with its email server, quickly replicated the message into several copies, before the gigabit router shook hands with the SONET router and fired away thousands of data packets into the dedicated trunk line leading out into the world, connected to a NTT exchange building located in Odawara City.

From there the email spread out to other outlying networks across Japan, and to undersea fiber-optic cables connecting Odawara to neighboring stations in San Francisco, Melbourne, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Singapore, the signal boosted and carried over by cable repeaters separated for more than 100 kilometers between each other.

In less than 45 seconds, the email reached the other side of the world, copies dropped into every inbox, awaiting the recipient to open and read it, not expecting its contents to be shockingly capable of changing the course of history.

* * *

The email program installed in Misato's laptop now told Makoto that the transmission was complete. He then read off the time on his watch, implying to his superiors that a little patience will be needed.

"In a few minutes, we'll get our answer," he said.

From that point nobody inside the conference room spoke a word, anxiously awaiting for the inevitable reply, some of them silently envisioning how the Prime Minister would react, such as spitting out his coffee upon opening and reading the attachment.

After several minutes, Makoto said as he peered at the screen, "We have an incoming transmission. It's him, all right."

"Bring it up on the main display," Fuyutsuki ordered.

The Prime Minister appeared onscreen, as he chose to speak via videoconferencing, introducing himself to those present, and nodded.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," the PM said. "We have received your email, and by now you should have read our preconditions, hoping that your organization should have complied promptly… Yet what is this attachment that you have thrown in? This is too large!"

"Your Excellency," Fuyutsuki coolly replied. "I insist that you must see it for yourselves, for it would be most unwise to ignore the severity of the situation we are facing."

"Very well, then," the PM said. "Now where is Commander Ikari?"

"He was arrested earlier for treason and other charges, and is currently under our watch, and I am presently in charge of this facility."

The PM looked surprised. "Why have you not brought him to us now?"

"I'm afraid that since he is completely incapacitated, we cannot meet your demands until Ikari is fully awake."

The PM frowned. "Why?"

"Again, you must first review the files, and then we shall consider your demands, as well as you looking into ours."

"And what are they?"

"One, we need more help to defend this base from SEELE forces," Misato said. "Two, we want guarantees that noncombatants here are given safe passage, and three, only after we successfully stop SEELE from taking control do we will comply to deactivate the Eva program thoroughly and hand Ikari over to you."

"That's all?"

Misato and Fuyutsuki nodded in unison.

"What if you're wrong?" the PM questioned. "Why we should trust you? You people have the capacity to destroy the world several times over, and we will not allow that to happen! Right now the _Jietai_ are waiting outside."

Fuyutsuki cleared his throat. "As surrender is no longer an option, we would rather prepare ourselves to fight it out, to make sure the Evas and everything else does not fall into the wrong hands, even if we may have to pay it out with our own lives on the line. And if you don't believe us, would you like to be the last Prime Minister of Japan to preside over the end of mankind, with blood on your hands?"

This time the question hit the PM squarely that he was completely speechless for a minute until he said, "Let me consult my people on this matter."

Misato nodded, and then said, "Take your time, Your Excellency."

* * *

There was a minute or two of silence as the conference room settled down to contemplate and wonder what would happen next.

"Ritsuko," Misato said, breaking the impasse permeating the atmosphere.

The scientist looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Forgot to ask… How's the Evas are doing?"

"Oh, just wait a second," Ritsuko said as she signaled to Maya to hand over her iPad, and began playing her fingers around the touchscreen until she got the information she wanted.

"Well?" Misato asked.

"As of this minute," Ritsuko answered. "Both Evas are currently under regeneration, at around 90% of completion. Not too serious enough to force us to do a manual bonding and suture."

Misato nodded. "I see. Have you got any tricks for them?"

"I think we'll have to get started on the firmware and optimize it completely."

"Which is…?"

"We need to add a little more punch to their reflexes by halving the source code for the synapse circuitry, and then adjust the electrolyte mixture to increase the neuroelectric response speeds. Not only that, I've got to tweak the onboard computers and the fire control systems, and set them up for full-on combat."

Asuka held up a hand. "'Scuse me, but what about the weapons?" she asked excitedly as if expecting presents on Christmas Day.

In reaction, Ritsuko turned to her and smiled. "Hmmm… I can't tell you much about them, but they'll be quite a surprise."

The redhead frowned. "Aw, come on, why the mystery? Tell me!"

"I don't like spoiling the fun, you see," Ritsuko said before chuckling. "But anyway… I'll show them to you later, okay?"

Asuka nodded, although she was fuming a bit. "All right," she agreed grudgingly.

* * *

For almost an hour the Security Council debated heatedly over the authenticity of the documents, with questions as to who leaked what, who was responsible for the lapse in security, how big the extent and influence of SEELE, and so on.

But they were left stunned and speechless, just after watching the no-longer-top-secret Antarctica footage which shown the genesis of the Second Impact.

There was nothing else, but the video clearly delivered the message – more than volumes of Kaji's dossiers could ever try to convey – to them that if they fail to prevent Third Impact, as they saw in the clip, there would be no escape this time.

The GSDF general asked, breaking the silence. "Pardon me, Your Excellency?"

"Yes?" the Prime Minister said, who swung his seat to face him. He looked grim-faced, he was sweating despite the air-conditioning, rivulets of sweat slipping down the sides of his face.

The general thought he could even hear the faint hammering of the old man's heart. "Have you made up your mind? The troops are ready at your word."

"And what do you think, General?"

It seemed that the general consensus of the room was that the men gathered around this conference table were now of one mind.

* * *

Just as they were discussing about the exact details of the defenses to be erected to protect Headquarters, the video comlink window appeared on the projector screen.

The Prime Minister appeared, but looked worried this time, a stark contrast from his earlier firm and aggressive facial expression.

"We have reached a consensus, Commander," the old man said.

Fuyutsuki blinked at first, but then quickly composed himself. "Pardon me?"

The Prime Minister took a breath, and then said, "Starting after this, we are ready to send troops to help with the defense of your base. We should not let the enemy to destroy human existence, and should we win the day, it will be appropriate that the Eva program be shut down, and Ikari and Lorenz be brought to justice."

"And what about us?"

"There will be an amnesty for all NERV personnel, and we guarantee that no harm will be caused against you or any of your men, and you are free to reorganize or dissolve NERV as you wish. It means that we have nullified Order A801."

There was a momentary amount of deafening silence; they could not believe it, the Prime Minister somehow cracked under pressure, and now this fateful decision.

"Thank you, Your Excellency," Fuyutsuki said. "We're prepared to receive your forces as soon as possible."

The Prime Minister now looked relieved as his NERV counterpart. "My pleasure, Commander," he said. "We will contact you later, but should you need anything else, don't hesitate to call on us again."

Fuyutsuki made a wry smile. "Again, thank you."

Only once the comlink window closed did a huge whoop of cheering erupted within the conference room, this time with no need for protocol or restraint, with everyone shaking their hands with others in congratulations, hugging, high-fives, and in the case of the Children, they group-hugged with Misato, while Maya and Ritsuko hugged tightly, both women almost in tears.

As for Tsutomo and Natsumi, well, he simply yanked the woman off her chair and kissed real tight.

Hamamoto gave out a loud burst of laughter, and from his seat he stood up and clapped Fuyutsuki on the back, who looked as if he didn't mind.

"Damn, it worked! Katsuragi, you're a genius!" the old director exclaimed. "Commander, it's a miracle! The gods must be smiling at us!"

Disengaging herself from her wards, Misato can only manage a grin and said, "This wouldn't be possible without Kaji."

"You bet, I should raise a toast to him," Hamamoto said, before turning his attention to Fuyutsuki and smiled. "You know, sir…"

The new Commander stood up and straightened out. "Yes?"

"I know General Yamamoto personally," the old director said. "An old classmate."

"And surely he's your drinking buddy, right?"

"No kidding, I'm the godfather of his two sons. We both know that he'd been here before, but he lost his troops back when that first Angel went on attack. I bet he's sweating bullets right now, so by the time he comes down here later, he'll make you his best friend."

Hamamoto then smiled wistfully as he watched the two couples - Shinji and Asuka, Rei and Kaworu - kiss a little bit and whispered a few things amidst the cacophony of joy and laughter, despite the coming of the inevitable storm, and they have yet to see real combat.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Finally, after a very long spell and procrastination caused by severe breaks of concentration and distraction, and real life eating up so much time that should've devoted to this fic, I've finished writing this chapter.

Sure I had the images in my mind, but between the release of the last chapter and now, I could barely write a few more paragraphs, as it was maddening that I be disrupted badly, and before I could return to this chapter I feel tired.

But, anyway, I'm relieved that finally I have the time to work on this again (and other fics still waiting to be worked on). I hope that after this I'll have enough motivation and energy to finish this and more… and as always, C&C is welcome.

I'm back.


	45. A Call to Arms

Within the hour and acting on direct orders from the Prime Minister, the _Jietai _ground units began to move everything they had, converging themselves into the valley. Military vehicles were streaming in, with soldiers directing traffic at every intersection, while the airwaves were filled with orders, units exchanging location and status information.

Half of Yamamoto's forces have started to form a steel ring around the lagoon-like crater, with combat engineers bulldozing rubble to form makeshift barriers, which in turn to be reinforced with dirt and sandbags. Type-10 tanks and tracked M270 MLRS launchers would then be rolled in to position themselves hull-down behind the barriers, and meanwhile troops went about stripping their gear off and then gone to work on constructing bunkers and firing positions for heavy machine guns, mortars and anti-tank missiles. Trucks also came in with supplies, and soon the boxes of ammunition, rations, fuel, and anything needed for a very serious armed confrontation were hoarded into key spots. As for overhead protection, Patriot and anti-aircraft missile launchers were immediately stationed around this circle, and up in the air _Reisen_ fighter aircraft in groups of four flew patrols over the valley. Below them were low-flying helicopters and gunships arriving in dozens, coming over to land at makeshift landing zones, either to offload more supplies and troops, or to be armed and refueled.

The other half of those forces was also being transported into the Geofront, and as they arrived with their tanks, IFVs and APCs rolling off the trains and express elevators, the soldiers were greeted with cheers and confetti (made from torn-up phone books and printouts) coming from grateful NERV personnel who earlier thought with apprehension that the _Jietai _could possibly destroy them.

Like their comrades-in-arms aboveground the _Jietai_ troops wasted no time to reinforce the defense perimeter, all weapons and troops forming a ring around the pyramid as they started stockpiling ammunition, fuel and supplies which they hope would fuel a stiff defense should the enemy breach into the Geofront.

But even with this miraculous infusion of men and materiel, they asked themselves about the would-be enemy they might soon encounter: how big they could be? Where they could come from? How powerful are their weapons?

Among those who were asking those biting questions inwardly was General Yamamoto, as he and his aides were riding one of the express elevators, along with their gear and documents; his first agenda upon getting off the elevator was to meet up with his NERV counterparts.

* * *

**END OF EVANGELION: **_**BLOOD AND WATER  
THE FINAL SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 45: A CALL TO ARMS  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 5/21/2012 2:50 a5/p5

* * *

In Siberia, and inside the command center, Keel Lorenz grimly stared at the video wall, watching the world new outlets burst into a flurry of announcements and flash reports, all of the talking heads speaking of an enigmatic organization responsible for a massive conspiracy on a global scale. They even played the now-infamous secret UN video footage purportedly showing the root cause of the Second Impact.

His followers, all dressed in monk-like robes, appeared to be nervous, with one daring to ask, "May I ask a question, Master?"

"Yes?" Keel responded.

"They could stop us before we can even begin," the aide said. "Either Ikari or Fuyutsuki must have acted on their own accord. This smacks of treason."

Keel snorted. "They can talk all they want, surely expecting their governments to respond, but we have made preparations for that."

The aide blinked. "How?"

"You should know that we still have our loyalists in high office," Keel said in a rather confident tone. "They will do everything in their power to delay, if not stop, any action that could be initiated against our will. Not even the President of the United States can dare try."

The aide said nothing, as Keel turned to face him.

"I intend that we start as scheduled," the old man said, "rather than take any hasty course of action, which could waste more of our time and resources than what is necessary. Symbolically we will attack at dawn, and make the world know that its end is at nigh."

Only then Keel saw Quaritch enter the control room; inwardly he was surprised, but reacted only by blinking.

"Where have you been?" Keel asked as he picked up his half-full cup of tea.

"I'm sorry, I went to the toilet," Quaritch said. "Had to take my dosage… But, sir, what's up?"

After taking a long sip, Keel nodded. "It's happening," he said flatly, upraising his right hand and swept across the video wall full of talking heads. "What can you say about this?"

* * *

For Shinji, he had a surreal feeling of unreality, as they watched, from their vantage point on the balcony overseeing the HQ parking lot, the _Jietai_ tanks and vehicles coming down here in droves, soldiers frantically directing every one of them to park at specified spots, to await for further orders to reposition. They could also smell the pall of diesel smoke, prompting Asuka to momentarily cover her mouth and try to get hold of her handkerchief from the pocket.

"Kaworu," Shinji said to the young man standing besides him, "Do you think this could be enough?"

"I hope so," Kaworu replied, with Rei besides him and watching silently. "If my memory is correct about the size of SEELE's forces, however, even if we now have this country's military on our side, we'll have a very tough chance."

The Children can then see, at one part of the parking lot, scores of mechanics swarming over a dozen pickup trucks, armed with their tools to transform this fleet into armed vehicles called "technicals", as Misato had earlier explained as she issued orders to the chief of the vehicle maintenance division: they would install machine gun mounts and attach sheets of thick metal to act as armor plating.

Nearby, standing on top of one Humvee and with a bullhorn in hand, Makoto Hyuga was busy calling out for volunteers to sign up and get trained for a crash course in basic infantry skills and weapons familiarization and usage. Below him, several long lines have formed, snaking their way to a makeshift registration booth, where would-be volunteers were questioned about any prior military experience and assigned according to their skill level; those with more experience were qualified to lead any formation up to platoon level. The volunteers would then be issued his or her equipment, and an assault rifle with five magazines to go with it, before led on to a cluster of tents set up to serve as field classrooms. Just beyond that was a makeshift firing range on the lawn, where the volunteers would try to hone their aiming skills, with experienced Section Two troopers to assist them. They could hear the loud crack of controlled gunfire, with the practicing volunteers trying to learn how to shoot in semi-auto.

Shinji frowned a bit at Kaworu. "'Tough chance'? I thought you were hopeful?"

Kaworu shook his head. "No, I mean… Seriously, what opposition we'll be looking at could bring an uneven battle, if not dirty. From what I have understood while reading the history of mankind, in war there's no such thing as a fair fight. It's not like boxing where you have a referee and judges to decide your victory."

Shinji nodded. "I see."

He then remembered the first time he came here, but found himself smack in the middle of a battle between the _Jietai _and that Angel, as they tried to kill it with bullets and missiles, but never stood a chance as their towering enemy simply demolished them all like a child scattering small toys out of the way.

It was only when he was riding the Eva that he gave that Angel an equal to fight with, but at that time he knew nothing about fighting, he was thrown in at the last minute, and it was quite a shock for him to be put into war without much ado.

But Unit-01 did the killing for him, destroying the Angel with brutal efficiency.

"I've decided," Shinji finally said.

"What?" Asuka said.

He turned to face her. "We'll deal with those other Evas only. I don't want to kill another man again, and besides, our Evas alone can't be stopped easily by any army."

"We'll leave the hand-to-hand fighting to Misato instead," Asuka said, and just as she was about to say another word, Misato walked into the balcony.

"Are you guys coming with me?" she asked.

The older woman was now wearing, apart from her battle dress uniform and a pair of Adidas GSG tactical boots, a PASGT combat vest, with a Thales AN/PRC-148 radio clipped to the back and with a throat mike connected, to permit troop-to-troop communications. Slung from her shoulder was an H&K G36K assault rifle, with her sidearm in its holster and riding on the right hip, and in her right hand was a folder.

In full battle gear, Misato looked very formidable.

"Whoa… Where?" Asuka asked.

"I'd like all of you to meet up with the _Jietai_ general in charge."

* * *

Except for the 150-kilometer radius around Hakone, which was still being vacated, the rest of Japan was now in complete lockdown, more than six hours after the declaration of martial law, and as such, families were forced to stay indoors, prohibited from coming out into the streets. All activity, including school and work activities, and also domestic and international travel, were suspended until further notice.

At present, only the local police and military vehicles were cruising the empty streets, while helicopters flew above, their bullhorns repeatedly warning the populace.

Like many cities across the country, Tokyo-2 was almost a ghost town, and down in the suburban area where the resettlement zone was located, Toji Suzuhara was already chafing at the sudden national imposition of martial law.

But like the rest of his companions sitting on the nine-tatami mat, they all feel nervous, fearing that the worst may soon come, which meant their greatest concerns were focused on the four Children stationed hundreds of kilometers away.

"Damn," Toji muttered as he put down his cellular phone on the coffee table. "I still can't call any of them on the phone for the umpteenth time, and I'm sure that we can't even use the Internet."

"Of course they'll not allow us," Kensuke Aida reminded, tearing his gaze away from the television, which was tuned only to NHK and the newscaster droning on, with the government-owned television network currently authorized to broadcast, constantly airing the news and interspersed with reminders to citizens to remain at home, and to wait for further official announcements. "The lockdown's in full effect. Nothing goes in or out, and other than the official PR we're completely in the dark."

Toji fumed. How he wished he could have contacted his buddies earlier before the lockdown came in, and he wanted to know a clear picture of what was going on. He then turned to Hikari Horaki, who was playing a game of UNO with her sisters and Mari; they were trying their best of making something good out of their predicament, but Toji could see that Hikari's eyes were expressing doubt and her light laughter was one of unease than genuine.

Even Pen-Pen, normally an energetic creature who seemed to possess intelligence more unusual than any of his fellows within the same genus, instead lay by Hikari's hip as if he needed her presence for the sake of comfort.

He then stood up and to Kensuke he said, "Say, why don't you join me at the veranda?"

Kensuke rose onto his feet. "Sure," he answered.

* * *

Momentarily distracted from the card game, Hikari watched the two boys go out into the veranda, thinking they could get some fresh air, but as Kensuke closed the door, she knew it was going to be some serious talk between those two.

Which led the girl to worry about her classmates, wondering what they were doing at this very moment.

She remembered their last conversation over the Internet, which was of joy and congratulations, of seeing Shinji and Asuka now as lovers. How she would love to see them come to school together with their hands clasped, their blossoming romance a great spectacle of the whole campus.

If they could just come together again in the same classroom, but the sordid truth was that their school was a pile of rubble, that it could take a year or so before that school be rebuilt completely.

Oh, she missed the daily routine of her being 2-A's class representative, and wished none of the violence engendered by the Angel attacks ever happened at all.

* * *

Once Kensuke closed the sliding door, only then Toji began to speak.

"How long do you think this stuck-up's gonna last?" he asked.

"Maybe anywhere from three days to a week," Kensuke answered as he rested his arms on the railing. The late morning brought in some wind, but the only sounds they could hear were chirping birds and the distant siren of some patrol car. As always the streets were empty.

"Shit," Toji cursed. "I'm still really worried about them."

Kensuke made a sour face. "Yeah, me too, especially they're smack in the middle of the mess."

"Do you have any idea what the government is really up to?"

"If they think NERV is a problem, it makes sense that they'll go to great lengths to make this look like an industrial accident waiting to happen, and what they're doing is far too big not to ignore."

"And why would the government dislikes NERV?"

"My dad told me a few things, nasty rumors really, about a few Diet members he know of talking about NERV the other day."

Toji nodded. "Go on."

"Although they've not mentioned about it in public, there's a growing majority in the Diet who wants that organization to be disbanded completely for having excess power and autonomy, and some even say that the Evas are too powerful that their use should be curbed just like nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."

"Yeah, they're that dangerous," Toji said. "But I know Shinji's an okay guy who knows where and when to put her to fight, but only that his dad is an asshole for causing this."

For a moment he then absentmindedly adjusted his artificial leg, before Toji closed his eyes for a moment, and tried to will himself to imagine what was going on down at the Geofront.

He pictured the whole place being prepared for war, just like the movie he and Kensuke saw on TV several nights ago, which depicted the battle of Iwo Jima, the one where the imperial soldiers decided to make a final stand to defend the island and kill as many Americans as they could, only to be defeated in the end, paying a terrible price for defending a piece of rock in a vast sea.

Shivering, Toji thought if the situation in Hakone could be just as it was in the movie, and thus he prayed that they – Shinji and Asuka, Rei and Kaworu – were all right, not knowing that in reality it was a very different picture indeed.

* * *

Misato and the Children arrived at the reception hall, to find the _Jietai_ officers and their NERV counterparts present, with Fuyutsuki turning to face them and smile. He was no longer wearing his customary formal uniform, but like Misato, dressed in a BDU except it was his first time.

Earlier the old man received the combat uniform wrapped in plastic, and though he was hardly a combatant throughout his entire life, the circumstances he was in called for this. As he dressed up, it was only then that if he needed to lead people, it was necessary to identify with his subordinates, to say firmly that he was willing to fight alongside with them.

Also present were Ritsuko and Maya, both women wearing work coveralls, and Director Hamamoto and his crack troops of the Second Section SRT, all dressed in the same urban camo fatigues and armed to the teeth.

"Well, good thing you people have come just in time," Fuyutsuki said.

"Thank you, sir," Misato said before she saluted at General Yamamoto and his staff, and they returned the favor at the same time, and then the general offered his hand. Misato took it and shook hands.

"Nice to meet you," Yamamoto said as he noted her cuff rank; she was now lieutenant-colonel. "It's quite a surprise that you rose up quickly in command, Colonel. Last time I saw you, you were then a captain."

"My pleasure, sir," Misato replied as they disengaged.

The general then went on to shake hands with each of the Children and exchanged a few words. It was with Kaworu that he noted a peculiar similarity with Rei, before he focused back to Fuyutsuki and said, "As my government has promised, I've brought the entire division to defend this place, top to bottom. If they come, we'll throw everything we've got at them, from land, sea and air."

"You forgot to mention the Evas," Asuka said pointedly.

Yamamoto chuckled. "Oh, sorry… the Evas," he said, before his facial expression turned stern. "Commander Fuyutsuki, it would be a great honor to work with you once again, and we look forward to completing our mission to defend humanity against possible annihilation."

Fuyutsuki and Hamamoto nodded. "It's also a great honor that your Prime Minister has sent you to help us," the new Commander said.

"Thank you, but I'd like to tell you a little story," Yamamoto said.

Fuyutsuki blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well… According to my boss down at the command bunker, the new intel that you people mailed to him was quite a sensation," Yamamoto remarked. "Seriously it changed his mind, especially with that UN video."

"That's very good news," Fuyutsuki said.

"But after watching that, my boss saw the old man looked pale, as if he came across a ghost, and quickly went to the toilet... probably to pee. The whole thing scared the hell out of him."

Everyone suddenly laughed at Yamamoto's little anecdote, breaking the tension in the air and bringing in much-needed levity to an otherwise serious situation.

"Anyway," Yamamoto said afterwards. "Where do we begin?"

* * *

Outside, at the improvised shooting range near the Pyramid, many of the volunteers were practicing with the assault rifles and pistols, guided by experienced instructors who tutored them on the finer points of aiming their weapons, emphasizing on shooting at the center of mass as opposed to mere marksmanship. Others were taking one-on-one instructions on how to throw a grenade, using large round stones as stand-ins for the real deadly thing.

Not far from the shooting range and its loud staccato of gunfire was a tent erected as a makeshift classroom for the volunteers, and right now Tsutomo Kanzaki was lecturing about the basic information on the M4A1 rifle, once the mainstay weapon of the American army. Right in front of him was a table, and further out was his class, volunteers clad in urban camo fatigues; behind Tsutomo was a whiteboard scribbled with his own notations.

"This here is the Colt M4A1 assault rifle," Tsutomo began in English, hefting the weapon with both hands. "It can shoot 5.56-millimeter standardized NATO bullets from a 30-round magazine, at a firing rate of anywhere from 750 to 900 rounds per minute. Being shorter than the older M16 rifle, and also a direct descendant of the Colt Commando, it has an adjustable stock so that even the shortest of us can aim and shoot comfortably. The reduced size also makes it lighter to carry almost anywhere.

"Like its predecessor, but heck a lot more with the Picatinny rail on top of the receiver, the M4 can be customized extensively with any accessories, depending on the mission the weapon would be used for. In our case, every M4 you will be using is the MWS variant, which comes with a foregrip, a reflex red dot sight, and an AN/PEQ-2 laser pointer system, except for a customized batch made for spec-ops but now issued pronto to our SRTs.

"Apart from your M4s, you will also be issued with five magazines per man, due to our limited stocks, but in the heat of battle I know that the magazines for Type-89 rifles can't be used with the M4 because of a design flaw, which makes them non-STANAG, yet the ammo from those mags can be utilized instead, so try to pick them up while you can and wherever you find them, then fill up the mags."

Tsutomo laid down the M4 and said, "While some of you are veterans, mostly from the last war in Korea, this is in effect refresher training to get yourselves up to date, because what you learn here today could save your life tomorrow… So, any questions?"

A volunteer, a lance corporal, raised his hand and asked, "Sir, where did we got them, and when?"

"A few days ago," Tsutomo said. "They're basically surplus from the US government, because they're switching over to newer anything, and these weapons have been replaced by the SCAR series of rifles. Now if any of you are worried about any malfunctions, every rifle issued to you has their own servicing records, and they have been given great care and maintenance, even if most of them haven't seen action for more than a decade."

Another volunteer's hand, a staff sergeant, shot up as soon as the first questioner settled down onto his seat.

Tsutomo pointed his finger. "Yes, please?"

"Sir, do you have any more intel about the possible opposition?" the volunteer asked. "I mean, sir, what kind of gear they could be carrying? What about this private army that Colonel Katsuragi spoke about?"

Tsutomo frowned. "You mean the GPE – Global Protection Enterprises – boys?"

"That's right, sir."

"If my memory serves me right about reading their PR sometimes ago," Tsutomo said. "I remember that they have the best equipment in their inventory than any other PMC in history, which means that every one of their soldiers, mercenaries really, have their own pick of weapons and personal equipment, apart from volunteering themselves to field-test and fire working prototypes from defense contractors… and this is where we could have a problem, sergeant."

The volunteers started to whisper imprecations and make faces.

"If they're armed and equipped with anything that's ten years ahead of even the most powerful militaries on the planet, say, with magazine clips loaded with armor-piercing rounds not approved by the Geneva Convention, surveillance drones about the size of a fly, or lightweight armor that can stop an AK-47 round, there's another piece of advice that I would find very useful for all of us: remember that even the best advanced technology is still vulnerable to the most primitive forms of warfare."

"Sounds like 'asymmetrical warfare', sir," the sergeant corrected him.

"That's correct," Tsutomo agreed, before he scribbled 'asymmetrical warfare' on the whiteboard. "That form of warfighting has been proven from time to time, taking advantage of the weaknesses inherent in the enemy, even if he's well-fed, well-armed and trained, and has a lot of technological muscle compared to his opponent, and if you know your history, it's the kind of warfare that forced the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and some decades later, the Soviets from Afghanistan.

"However, while those guerillas were able to do so in a few years by progressively wearing down their opponents in several fronts without having to launch a major offensive, we don't have much time on our hands, just hours. But I'm sure some of you have any ideas on how we could deal with the opposition, even if he's ten feet tall and feeling damn cocky."

Tsutomo went around to the front of the table and asked, "So, does anyone have something else good to suggest, and if possible, I could even forward it to Colonel Katsuragi? Like her, I'm all ears."

In no time and to his surprise, the agent saw a lot of upraised hands, before he saw a very elderly man, still wearing his lab coat, stand up from his seat.

"Pardon me, sir?" Tsutomo asked, before he recognized the oldest volunteer in this class. "Oh, Doctor Tien, you're volunteering for this?"

Doctor Huy "Henry" Tien raised his hand; the elderly, silver-haired Vietnamese organic chemist was once a teenage NVA soldier who alternately manned an anti-aircraft gun during the bombing raids over Hanoi and worked at a war factory that manufactured satchel charges by the hundreds for the Vietcong down south. After the war he was sent to Moscow on a free scholarship provided by the Soviets, then later returned home a brilliant man, to help his country by making contributions to science until, by his government's prodding, he volunteered for NERV.

"Yes, my department might want to contribute anything substantial for our defense," Tien said.

"And what is it, sir?"

"We will try to create improvised explosives from out of any materials we have on hand," Tien answered. "Yes, assuming if my memory of my war days still serves me right, I also have the experience in making them, especially that we could produce ANFO explosives in large quantities."

Tsutomo grinned. "Excellent, sir," he remarked. "I didn't know that."

"Normally," Tien said, "some of us veterans don't want to talk much about our war stories because of trauma, that we don't want to relive about watching fellow soldiers die right before our very eyes, that we become almost deaf from the explosions, that some of us wake up to find a leg or a hand missing. For years after the war, I want to forget all that by burying myself deep into studies, thinking it would save me from the pain… Yet my experience of the war can't be erased altogether, it has become part of me till the day I die, and ever since I started working here I have gained many friends that they're almost family to me, so in a sense I'm more of a father to them. But, young man, should they be threatened by harm, or if any peaceful and diplomatic resolution to the problem we're facing fails, I will not regret about taking up arms once again on their behalf and _of humanity_, even if I'm an old man."

* * *

This time they were now in a command tent that was set up at the parking lot just outside the Pyramid.

With his index finger, General Yamamoto had his finger on the digitized map, which was an LED touch-screen monitor set face-up on a table, pointing out positions where he laid over his plans for the initial defense of the Hakone area of operations (AO). Everyone else, including the Children, encircled the map, and around the perimeter of the tent, his staff began to set up their own equipment, and already two of his radiomen were busy working the electronics and communication gear to link up with troops here and aboveground.

"First of all," Yamamoto said, his finger acting as a felt-tip marker, encircling friendly positions. "My naval colleague, Admiral Oshima, has just set his flotillas on either side of the Izu Peninsula, which will be our area of operations. This includes our best cruisers, guided missile destroyers, and attack submarines. Of course both cruisers and destroyers have full Aegis capability, armed with SM3 anti-ballistic missiles on ready within their VLS launchers, and in case there's an air attack, they also have surface-to-air missiles to intercept any enemy bogies."

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Go on," he said.

Yamamoto now traced his finger inland. "In case the enemy punches through this first line of defense, any approaches into the valley will be heavily defended, with tanks and troops to block such incursions. The enemy will also be harassed with our gunships and strike aircraft on call.

"Should the approaches get overwhelmed," Yamamoto went on, "I have a ring of steel put around the city, with more than enough tanks and other combat vehicles to hold the enemy at bay until we could bring in more reinforcements. Again I have also set up anti-aircraft missile batteries to inhibit further use of airpower."

"But what if they use an N2?" Misato asked.

Yamamoto blinked. "Come again?"

"Assuming they know that the top of the Geofront has been weakened, they'll land an N2 to destroy our overhead protection, and then funnel everything they have right in here. They'll also assume that they'll do that way to ease their assault rather than bother with the car trains or the express elevators."

This time the general blanched; a direct hit by an N2 at dead center of the lagoon would kill anyone within the blast radius roughly the same size as that of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.

"So, damn, looks like I'll have to redeploy everyone there out of the blast radius," Yamamoto said. He then took a pen and a pad placed near the digital map, jotting down notes for a while before gesturing to an aide, telling him to send out word via radio that his troops should get ready for repositioning.

"You want me to set up a trap?" Yamamoto questioned afterwards as he, using his index finger on the map, rearranged his units out of the designated Ground Zero. Anything he did on the map would automatically update the other maps used by commanders and even squad leaders under his responsibility.

Misato nodded. "That's right, and just as Sun Tzu said, the best defense can be done deep into the bowels of the earth. They crash the party and we'll greet the bastards with a lot of firepower."

"Sounds good," Yamamoto said. "Do you have an idea about their capabilities?"

Hamamoto handed to his old friend a folder containing a full printout of the GPE order of battle. The general then spent a few minutes reviewing the contents, until he got a full picture.

The general laid down the folder and said, "Damn, these bastards are really up ahead as far as technological capabilities are concerned."

"They still have a flaw," Misato said.

"And what is it?"

"Well… If they depend too much on their technology, they get blind over time, and when they do, they're easy pickings."

"And then where would the Evas figure in this plan?" Yamamoto asked.

"We'll be anticipating not just a massive conventional assault, but those Mass-Production models," Misato answered. "Wherever they'll come from, we'll have to kill them, too."

"What danger they'll pose then?"

"These enemy Evas have the potential to start Third Impact," Ritsuko said. "They're very far ahead of us, each having a working S2 Engine and a Dummy Plug… But other than that, we're not sure about their exact capabilities and limitations, just guesstimates."

* * *

Kaworu wanted to say something, but even he, being the only one directly out of SEELE command, had no idea about the true destructive extent of the MPs, for Keel kept him in the dark and was only fed with small tidbits about their construction.

"Mister Nagisa?" Yamamoto asked.

This brought Kaworu out of his thoughts and made him blinking. "I beg your pardon, sir?"

"You're the only one who used to be under SEELE control," the general questioned. "Care to tell us if you know anything else about SEELE's Eva program?"

"About the only knowledge I have is that the Dummy Plug programming is very advanced," he said. "If I say advanced, I say it's brutal and unforgiving because they will destroy their opponents in less than two minutes. I know this because Lorenz gave me an opportunity to observe the Plugs in action, in a simulation where they were directed to attack Angels and… Evas."

"Is there a way to defeat them?" Yamamoto asked.

"To kill them is to target their cores, but because of their overall construction, they're very agile, which means they will be hard to neutralize."

"But, hey, how could we practice against them?" Asuka asked. "You said that they have your thought patterns, which means they're supposedly smart as you are."

Kaworu looked noncommittal. "That's right, I'm afraid."

Asuka then turned to Ritsuko, who was listening most of the time, and said, "Say, why can't we hook him up to some machine and try out?"

"You mean a direct neural link from an Entry Plug? It's possible," Ritsuko said. "But it's never been done before."

"Give it a shot," Asuka said. "You're the genius in charge, Doc. You can make things happen: just put Kaworu in a Plug, run a neural link onto him, use his thought patterns in real time to simulate a DP so that we can have opponents to practice on in the simulator."

Ritsuko nodded, but then smiled. "Okay, that's a smart idea, Asuka," she said. "We'll try it out after lunch, but we'll also have to wait for the Evas to finish the regeneration process."

"I see," Asuka said.

"So what you people can arm the Evas with?" Yamamoto asked instead.

The scientist pulled her hardened laptop towards, and fed a few commands. "Let's see… We still have our Pallet rifles and hand guns, along with the necessary ammunition, and then a couple of sniper rifles and a Positron cannon… but those are too useless and slow in a fast, close-in engagement. We do have hand-held melee weapons, though, but there are also special weapons still in the prototype stage."

Asuka and Shinji's eyes widened. "Really?" both of them questioned in unison.

Ritsuko sighed, realizing she caught herself too late. "All right, so I got the rabbit out," she said. "We have four Pallet submachine guns patterned after the Fabrique National P-90 weapons, their design chosen for their ease of control and compactness; to save weight, more than 85 percent of their construction is mostly made of composite aerospace material."

She turned the laptop around to show the Children the pictures of the submachine guns, the grips built into the frame system.

"They also use the same ammo as the Pallet rifles, by the way," Ritsuko said, before pressing another key to open a new picture, this time what appears to be a six-barrel Gatling machine gun, except as it was stored in a special cradle, the heavy weapon dwarfed a trailer truck parked in front of it.

"We were supposed to deploy this weapon a couple of months ago, but a design flaw in both the mechanism and the internal powerplant forced us to make corrections. Right now, it's still serviceable but hasn't been fired before. Like the SMGs, this weapon can use standard Pallet ammo."

An aide walked over to Yamamoto and whispered something into his ear, while handing over a scribbled note. The general nodded, and he turned to his audience.

"Our American counterparts are feeling the heat just as we do," Yamamoto said. "Right now they're under a state of red alert, meaning to say all of their bases across the country aren't going to sit on this, with their units armed and ready for this contingency, having set their ships to sea and flying fighter patrols. Seems that even their President has taken your message pretty seriously, despite heavy opposition."

The senior officers nodded in agreement.

"So what other potential threats we could encounter?" the general asked.

"We cannot discount the possibility of a hacking attempt," Ritsuko said. "Right now my division is working on several ways to neutralize such intrusions, and as you know, the MAGI is an irresistible target. Aoba and the rest of the programming team is working on the firewall code, but later I'll add a few more tricks of my own."

"You know what threats we might encounter on that side?"

"It's unfortunate that we can't contact our overseas branches, which means they have been compromised, and as they possess MAGI copies and also heavily secured and fortified, with nothing coming in or out, I'm sure SEELE would use them to lay siege on our networks."

"Anything has a Plan B, so what last-ditch resort do you have?"

"On my command, the Section Two boys will blow up the land-lines. That'll leave us with nothing but satellite communications, and if the dish farm falls, we'll switch to data packet radio."

"You sure all that are EMP-hardened?"

Ritsuko nodded. "Because we tend to work with unusual biological anomalies, and therefore could produce all sorts of stupid pet tricks, yes, we make sure our equipment are up to spec and can withstand anything… But as much as we try to be careful, there's always Murphy's Law."

"Otherwise if we lose the techno-thingamajigs," Director Hamamoto interjected, "all we could make do for comms is Morse Code."

* * *

They were now gathered around inside the holographic communications room, sitting before a circular table that formed halves of a ring.

A meter from this cluster, Keel had his own table, complete with a pitcher of water and a glass, a pen and a pad for which to write on, and a red secure telephone.

Through special visors, his eyes scanned the faces of the council members, dressed in the same robes as he wore, each one of them ready to listen as witnesses, each alone had the absolute power to affect events in their own countries or even a portion of the world, commanding scores of loyalists who believed that their way is the best and for the good of many.

At this moment, Keel had the entire council assembled, for he wanted to confer with Gendo Ikari for the last time, to deliver the final ultimatum, not knowing that his former protégé had been deposed by his teacher.

Thirty minutes ago Keel issued orders to activate sleeper agents, to begin the process of countermanding any attempts to locate their whereabouts, or enact an armed response, or at least delay the inevitable. Right now the UN General Secretary was one of those agents, as he, through a press secretary, denied the claims made by the not-so-secret Antarctica footage, calling the video as nothing but the work of conspiracy theorists; the same man also transmitted a notice that effective immediately they have disassociated themselves from NERV, now a fugitive organization considered dangerous.

Well, Keel thought, the more chaos, the merrier, that the ensuing confusion and in-fighting among the leaders of the world would take the heat away from SEELE.

With the snap of his fingers, Keel saw the room lights fade away, covering them in darkness, before he could hear the faint sounds of the modem engage, making contact with NERV's holo-com room through a secure line via satellite.

* * *

Just as Fuyutsuki was about to tell everyone that it was time to break for lunch, having glanced at his watch, hands almost close to noon, one of the phones connected from the tent to the command center rang, prompting the duty officer to pick up the phone and gestured to General Yamamoto to turn on the speakerphone.

"Yes?' Fuyutsuki asked as everyone else listened in.

"This is Aoba, and I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir." Shigeru replied. "We have an incoming transmission from the holo-com room, and they're waiting for you."

"Who's there?"

"According to the ID… It's Chairman Lorenz of the Instrumentality Committee."

While everyone looked surprised, slowly Fuyutsuki turned to Shinji, who seemed to be sharing the same thoughts as he was, and the old professor understood by nodding.

"Politely tell that old bum to wait," he said. "We'll be there immediately."

"Yes, sir," Shigeru said before putting down the phone.

After a moment of silence, Fuyutsuki looked into the faces of his subordinates, and to Shinji, the old professor staring at the Third Children with determined eyes, almost quietly he said, "You're coming with me."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I've been taking time to write this chapter to prepare the characters for the inevitable face-off, as I wanted to provide the last two End of Eva episodes an added stretch.

The good news is that I now have more time to brainstorm than ever before, and at the same time I've been watching movies and reading books again to get more story ideas, so the tentative working title for the next chapter, at least for the time being, _Auguries of Innocence._

I want to finish this and I will as promised. Thank you for keeping the faith.


	46. Bloodlines

_He who mocks the infant's faith  
Shall be mock'd in age and death.  
He who shall teach the child to doubt  
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out._

_He who respects the infant's faith  
Triumphs over hell and death.  
The child's toys and the old man's reasons  
Are the fruits of the two seasons._

- William Blake, _Auguries of Innocence_

* * *

The holographic communications room was completely dark, save for a couple of dim lights, and only Shinji was alone with a couple of folding chairs and a table in the middle, waiting for a man he never met before, but shrouded in tales of mystery and conspiracy.

Perhaps this Chairman Lorenz, as Shinji contemplated, a man unimaginably ruthless, a villain in the truest sense of the word, like a caricature of spy movies in which such a villain, dapper in a three-piece suit and standing tall, had unimaginable amount of resources and capable of mobilizing an army of minions.

Or does he resemble the usual evil demented genius, dressed in a lab coat, cackling in laughter, with madness in his eyes?

He wasn't sure, but he hoped neither of those stereotypes, and all he understood about this man, whom he had never met in his entire life, was his frightening capacity to influence world decisions and alter the fate of nations.

Or judging from what Kaji divulged earlier in his post-mortem video.

Instead, he remembered the last few words of instruction from Commander Fuyutsuki, that he should keep calm, stand firm, watch his tongue and every move he made, for all eyes would be upon him in a few seconds.

And indeed they appeared right before him, smooth and shiny black monoliths, with blazing red digits for eyes, all labeled with the same name: SEELE, encircling him like huge slabs of Stonehenge; their sudden arrival startled the young man.

There was a moment of silence, as they seem to size him up with invisible eyes, gazing him from head to toe, before a deep voice rang out from the monolith marked as SEELE 01.

"It is my pleasure to see you," SEELE 01 said. "I presume that you are Shinji Ikari, the Third Children and the pilot of Unit One?"

"Yes, sir," Shinji answered.

SEELE 01 cleared his throat. "And where is your father, Commander Gendo Ikari? We insist that he should be here as well."

"I'm sorry," the young man said, shaking his head. "He can't come."

"What do you mean?" SEELE 01 questioned.

"I'm the one to be present here instead, and was told beforehand that you wanted to talk to me."

"That is correct. We repeatedly requested for a direct audience with you, rather than your father as a representative… But, again, where is he?"

"He's under arrest," Shinji said flatly.

Silence draped the room, as though the monoliths quickly engaged in muted conversation behind the scenes, before SEELE 01 grumbled again to disrupt.

"For what treason he had committed? That is good news, young man," the ancient voice said.

"Good news? He needs to be protected from himself," Shinji replied.

"Then who is in charge this time? Fuyutsuki?"

Shinji nodded.

SEELE 01 cleared his throat again, and sighed.

"Very well, then," he said. "Rather than we demand that this Judas Iscariot, your stubborn and traitorous father, that is, be present, and as we are more than glad to see you in person instead, may I indulge you to reveal myself for our benefit?"

Shinji nodded.

SEELE 01 faded out into the digital darkness, before an apparition of a robed figure, somewhat squat in stature, came to appear in place of the monolith. He indeed looked more of an ancient wraith, a face wrinkled with age and white hair, and a crooked nose that jutted out, holding up on its bridge what seemed to be a huge electronic visor, making him a geriatric Cyclops, a thin electronic slit in place for a couple of eyes.

This time Shinji was visibly surprised.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"It is both a blessing and a pity that we should meet for the first time and possibly also the last, young man," the elderly digital apparition said flatly, walking towards him.

Shinji said nothing, as the old man stopped short of a couple of feet away, and stared down into his eyes.

"I am Keel Lorenz, Grand Master of SEELE."

* * *

**END OF EVANGELION: **_**BLOOD AND WATER  
THE FINAL SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 46: BLOODLINES  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 6/19/2012 0:50 a6/p6

* * *

It took a moment for Shinji to register the name of this old man, who was waiting for him to speak. But Keel seemed to read his mind, and said, "Relax, and it is all right that you should take a seat."

Shinji complied by pulling one of the chairs towards him and sat down.

This satisfied Keel. "Good," he said. "Now… where do we should start? Oh, yes, apart from the usual formal reports we receive from the field, we also have heard many wonderful stories from your father about your role as the Third Children."

Shinji merely nodded, nary a word.

"Of all Children, you have accomplished much in a very short time, despite that you had a rough start in the very beginning; you killed more Angels than two of your… Should I dare to say, your playmates?"

The young man said nothing, which Keel took as a 'yes'.

"In any case, Shinji Ikari," Keel continued, "by your diligence, as well as by accident, you slowly unlocked the full potential of the Test Type, discovering her strengths and weaknesses, and whenever she is driven hard to a certain point, her ferocity is unleashed and nothing could withstand such raw, brutal power."

From out of nowhere, Keel produced a cup full of tea, and he took the time to mix it with a spoon, tapping it to the side of the cup and laid it down onto the table. With Shinji watching him, the old man then took a sip for a moment.

"For someone who is seemingly weak-willed, over time you have impressed us greatly with such personal progress," Keel praised. "We know this because we have eyes who have watched every move you made, observed your behavior on a daily basis, along with your eating patterns, the use of the toilet, and even how you socialize with youngsters of your age. Well, speaking of your friends, I gather that the Fourth Children punched you in the jaw?"

That really surprised Shinji, but the fact also made him shiver within. "How do you know that much?"

Keel shook his head as he put down the digitized cup on the table.

"I told you we have eyes _everywhere_," he reminded. "Too bad, that friend of yours possessed great potential, but your father thought otherwise as he had you turn Unit Three into a slab of meat."

"I didn't kill him!" Shinji objected, almost jumping out of his seat as if he was accused of murder in a trial. "That was the Dummy Plug!"

"We know that already," Keel said nonchalantly, personally amused that he finally got Shinji off his rocker. "Be happy that Mister Suzuhara had the great fortune to survive such excruciating brutality. Now let me get to the point."

Shinji was fuming as he sat down again, but begrudgingly he nodded.

"You are a very important young man, more than anybody on this fragile planet," Keel said. "You are not aware of it before, only that today we shall disclose to you a great secret."

The young man blinked repeatedly. "A secret?"

"Your mother, Yui Ikari Saint-Clair, is no ordinary woman."

"Why? Yes, Mother seemed to be so important to you people," Shinji answered.

"Precisely," Keel said as several pictures of Yui Ikari appeared from thin air, flanking around his head like leaves. "She helped us in the early days, but your mother was such a fierce character that her brilliant yet rebellious attitude could be our undoing, and hence we planned to have her assassinated. Yet it seems that she was one step ahead of us, and in doing so she assimilated herself into Unit One… What a smart woman you have for a mother."

"And what do you know of her?"

"Are you familiar with the Bible?"

Shinji shook his head. "No."

"What about the history of France?"

"I have no idea," the young man said.

"Your ignorance is forgivable," Keel said while circling the young man. "Only a small percentage of your countrymen are practicing Christians, and that your junior high school curriculum doesn't touch much on world history, but to begin with, your mother is of mixed parentage, a Japanese mother—"

"And a French father," Shinji added. "Kaji said so."

Keel blinked behind his visors. "Are you sure? I didn't know that he survived to tell."

"He's dead, no thanks to you," Shinji said flatly. "But he left us a video, among many things, and there he spilled the beans, even many things I don't know about my parents. Until that time, I didn't even know that I had a French grandfather."

The old man chuckled in reaction to the boy's surprisingly stubborn character, the first time while being here.

"The Saint-Clairs are a very old French family," Keel said. "They produced some of the most illustrious men and even women in history, and if we go further down the family tree, their importance becomes very obvious, for they came from the royal house called the Merovingian."

Shinji looked surprised. "What?"

"They were the first royal family of France," Keel said. "Before a traitor among their ranks brought them down and usurped their power. Still, what was far more important about this dynasty is the woman who first brought the bloodline into that country."

"And who's she? What's the connection between me and her?"

Keel smiled lightly. _"Mary Magdalene,"_ he said. "Do you want me to explain more about your heritage?"

* * *

It was widely accepted by most people that Mary Magdalene was a common prostitute, prior to her first encounter with Jesus Christ, in which she provided him the service of anointing His feet with the ointment of spikenard, before using her hair to wipe His soles. Afterwards she became one of Jesus' first female disciples.

However, further investigation by contemporary historians and scholars, after much study of the times as well as reading carefully the passages of the Bible in which Magdalene was mentioned in brought out a completely different light: instead of being an impoverished prostitute, as the early Church fathers ever since the Council of Nicaea had decided on in rewriting her role in Jesus' life by defaming the woman, Magdalene was really a member of a very powerful tribe called the Tribe of Benjamin, which had royal pedigree, and as such the woman had considerable influence, quite unusual in her day when men predominated society.

More amazingly, it seems that she was destined to cross paths with Jesus, whose lineage could be traced back to the House of David (of which King Solomon was David's successor but the last).

Already as Jesus was acquiring popularity with the masses while preaching, it became clear that He could pave the way of reclaiming Israel from the occupying Romans, and establishing a new kingdom, and for such a revival, why can't a King have a Queen?

Conventional dogma (with history rewritten by the early Church fathers) viewed Jesus as a celibate, but in reality, it was considered a grave sin (by Jewish standards) in His time to stay single, and hence it was the duty of a father to obtain an appropriate wife for his son. In this case, Magdalene of the Tribe of Benjamin was a very smart choice, unifying both royal lineages in marriage that could possibly bring about the liberation of Israel.

But it wasn't meant to be, for the corrupt Roman regime under the reign of Pontius Pilate saw Jesus' rise to fame as a threat, and in trying to take down the coming revolution, it took a bribe to turn a disciple to betray Him. Furthermore, not all the disciples were happy with Magdalene joining their ranks, as in the case of Peter, who hoped he could carry on Jesus' mission to evangelize the world and spread His word, but instead Jesus entrusted Magdalene to continue His ministry even after death, conferring upon her an enormous amount of authority more than Peter.

Whereas in most histories Magdalene disappeared, for a few it was assumed that for safety reasons she embarked on a journey to what would later become southern France, eventually settling in a Jewish community with her newborn, now named Sarah, which allowed her to begin with a fresh new start by preaching the Word.

From Magdalene and Sarah, it took decades of near-obscurity for the fledgling bloodline to wait, until by the fifth century one of its members intermarried with early French royalty, creating the Merovingian dynasty. From this new lineage, they founded Paris, and held sway over most of the country until King Dagobert was taken down by the Vatican by colluding with Pepin d'Heristal.

The death of Dagobert nearly drove the bloodline extinct, except for a single heir, Sigisbert, who escaped unscathed; the young man survived long enough to continue the lineage, which produced noblemen, saints, warriors, and kings, all bearing either the surnames of Saint-Clair (or Sinclair, later to become nobles of Scotland) and Plantard, even as France went through tumultuous changes, including the Revolution that completely wiped out the Bourbon monarchy, including both world wars, until one member of the clan married a Japanese woman.

And springing from that union was Yui Ikari Saint-Clair.

* * *

"Now," Keel said. "Do you understand how important you are? Do you believe in the truth we have imparted to you?"

Both of them were now surrounded by a holographic wall consisting of images, scanned pages of ancient texts, diagrams, and other arcane and esoteric documentation needed to enlighten the young man.

"I… I can't say," Shinji said in his disbelief.

Keel looked around, as if asking for approval from the other monoliths, and with the movements of his gnarly arms he drew open what looked to be a complex diagram from out of thin air, stretching a digitized square into shape as though unrolling a scroll.

"You see," Keel began, pivoting to face Shinji. "You are the latest in a very long lineage that began centuries ago, in a dusty country colonized by the Romans. A young man, supposedly a son of a carpenter and a common housewife, was in reality born into a very good noble family whose bloodline itself came from a royal house that was long subdued by other empires before the arrival of the Romans, and forced to live as commoners. Since then the weight of centuries have obscured their true secrets, layer upon layer of fantastic myth and legend as this young man's teachings became a great influence and legacy unprecedented in mankind."

Shinji stared at the diagram, which was spangled with lines and boxes forming into a large tree, starting from the bottom, then expanding further in the middle, until reaching the very top.

With his name on it in Latin letters, and connected by a line was his mother's, enclosed in a box.

He then let his eye trace downwards, reading off obscure names, mostly written in a language he didn't know of, and suddenly he wished Asuka was here to help him decipher them, as he thought she knew different languages other than German or English, until he found the names at the very bottom of the tree:

_Mary Magdalene + Jesus Christ_

"You are definitely of the royal blood," Keel said, letting the electronic scroll float slowly into the air. "_Sang Real_, if we want it to be formal, or if you like_, _the _Holy Grail_."

"What?"

"You, Shinji Ikari," Keel went on, "the second coming that the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls have prophesized, a direct descendant from the house of David, who in turn came from Moses, Noah… and ultimately the original Adam. You are one of a few sacred components needed to complete our holy dream. You should feel honored for such immense importance, for being connected directly with the First Father."

Shinji merely blinked.

"Why can't you?" Keel questioned, finding no relief in Shinji's face.

"I don't feel honored…. More like you and your crazy people want to destroy the world," Shinji countered.

"I stand corrected, young man," Keel said, unperturbed by the 'crazy' label. "We want mankind to be raised to the ultimate meeting with God in death, and to make our long-standing hopes a reality, we want your help by taking part in this momentous event, something that your mother, I'm sorry to say, disapproved of and much to our displeasure."

"And what good I could get from what you're talking about?"

Keel nodded. "Good question," he said. "Do you desire to meet your mother again? Or to be able to converse with long-gone relatives that you were not able to see or even talk to? Or, if you want, to be able to talk to anyone as if every human is a kin to you?"

"But…" Shinji trailed off.

"As if that is not enough, would you like to live in a world where pain or sadness or hate does not exist? Where you will have all the peace you want? And above all, do you wish to live forever, without knowing injury, sickness or death?"

Now Shinji said nothing again.

"We offer you a choice, a choice that no one else can make true more than you," the old man went on. "You have the power, you can harness it, and you can turn our dreams into reality."

"You must be talking about Unit One, right?" Shinji asked. "She's the 'power' you're going after."

"That is right," Keel answered. "Would you like to do the things that you, in your mortal and powerless shell, could not do?"

Slowly, Shinji held up both his hands, palms facing Keel, as if asking him to give a pause to ponder about the old man's words, letting all of them sink in.

* * *

Try as he could but given his limited knowledge, Shinji could not imagine how he, just an ordinary boy within yearning for a normal life, be linked indelibly with royal blood and even considered a direct descendant of one of the most famous and inspirational men in human history.

Furthermore, Keel seemed to be enticing him about the rewards of Instrumentality; if he did what they wanted, they promised that he could see his mother again.

It was overwhelming, really, the kind of preposterousness that his friends would either say _"Impossible!"_ or _"You got to be kidding me."_

But if Lorenz was telling him the truth, and considering much influence he wielded, judging from his way of talking (and that the old man was capable of conversing fluently in Japanese, a good thing because Shinji could still barely understand English or Asuka's German) he wasn't making all that up like a piece of fiction.

Or maybe not, a massive fabrication designed to scare his wits or make him out as a fool.

Or he was being coerced to do something wrong, like destroying the world as he feared.

Now he was confused.

Yet a memory bubbled up into his mind, and he recalled watching a movie (he forgot its title, as it was a foreign war movie) in which one of the main characters, a general, talked about history:

_Only the victor can rewrite history, either with a sword, a gun or a pen, and the vanquished foe be erased from time and existence._

But, no, he will not let this man have his way, even if he promised that he could be godlike.

* * *

"Do you have more for us to say?" Keel asked after a minute, as though badgering him to speak. This brought out Shinji from his reverie.

"I now have a lot of good reasons to respect Mom," Shinji spoke. "She joined your ranks so that she could try to stop you and your scheme, and if she failed there, I guess it's up to me to do whatever business she left off."

"You may dare, but listen," Keel said. "The promised time has come for us to fulfill that dream. We have lost the Spear of Longinus, which makes it impossible to use Lilith for Instrumentality, and that means you and Unit One, will be our deliverance to save mankind from his own pain, sins and imperfections. Through the saving grace of Instrumentality, there will be an infinite Paradise, and within this new Paradise all can be united again in true happiness."

Keel looked up to the monoliths, as if asking that they should concur with him, and they spoke in booming deep voices:

"_We have no intention of giving up our human forms simply to enter the Ark called Eva," _SEELE 09 said.

"_It is merely a rite of passage... To bring about the rebirth in those who are imprisoned," _SEELE 04 added.

"_The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth,"_ SEELE 10 interjected.

Satisfied with their replies, Keel said, "Try as you might to resist, child, but whatever your companions or supporters do will be futile resistance at best. Through our immeasurable power, there is nothing you can do except to comply with our wishes: surrender your arms and embrace Instrumentality."

"This time, I'm not a fool anymore," Shinji said.

Keel looked visibly surprised. "What?"

"Then perhaps you try telling that to us," a familiar yet defiant voice rang out of nowhere, until Kozo Fuyutsuki appeared from the shadows, walking into the light.

"So, it is you, Commander Fuyutsuki," Keel said, now looking crossed. "_Herr Professor."_

"Yes," Fuyutsuki answered flatly as he stood together with Shinji. "I am in command now, Chairman Lorenz, and this is of great concern for me as this is very important for Shinji, for him to know what sort of sham you're up to."

"You heard everything?"

Fuyutsuki nodded.

"I'm not the only one," he said, as others came walking in from the shadows, each sporting a determined expression on their faces: Asuka, Rei, Misato, Ritsuko, Maya, Director Hamamoto, General Yamamoto…

…and Kaworu Nagisa, whose unexpected coming took Keel by complete surprise for a second, shattering his composure.

"You are supposed to be _dead_, Tabris!" Keel exclaimed in outrage, his accusing finger shaking at the young Angel. "That is not what we wanted!"

Kaworu shook his head. "Symbolically I died for it, but I have survived for a very good reason," he said.

The Fifth Children then raised his hand, index finger extended, to digitally write a phrase in the space in front of him. They watched him write, using seemingly alien letters in an incomprehensible tongue unknown to the modern world, until it dawned upon Fuyutsuki, automatically translating it from Aramaic to Japanese, that it was a phrase made famous in the Bible, the one that finally told King Nebuchadnezzar that his number was up:

_MENE MENE TEKEL U-PHARSIN._

"I suppose you understand what that means, Chairman," Kaworu said in a calm voice. "Just I have finally understood my true purpose in this world."

"And what made you think about that?" Keel demanded, but inwardly took the warning, translating them to as: _you have been measured, weighed and found wanting_.

Without a word, Rei walked towards Kaworu and gently took his hand.

"You're a very powerful man," Kaworu began. "But you're empty, and nobody's going to die for you and for your false hopes. As for Ikari, he thinks that this young woman is a tool, only an experiment to be used and disposed of afterwards, but no, she's not what you or Ikari think of."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

But Kaworu went on, paraphrasing a passage from _The Little Prince_, another one of his favorite books. "She's more important than any of your machinations or acts of deviousness and venality, that for the first time I discovered the best parts of her and that of mine, that I opened her heart, listened to anything she truly wanted to say, tried my best to protect and take care of her… because _she's my rose_."

"Again, you're such a romantic fool," Keel ridiculed.

"You may call us names," Rei said, breaking her silence for the first time. "You may threaten us, or ask that we should plea on our knees… But from what I have heard everything from you, Herr Lorenz, I say that _death gives birth to nothing._"

At that very same moment, Keel was astonished by the firm yet familiar tone of the First Children's voice. Sure, it was his first time to see her in person, for she was Gendo's supposed pawn; a manufactured child created from the DNA of Yui Ikari, but never thought he lived to this day to hear this young woman talk as if Yui Ikari herself had finally returned in person, reincarnated in the body of this pale teenager.

The Chairman of the Human Instrumentality Project took a deep breath and recomposed himself, preparing to speak for the last time, but in an outraged tone.

"Very well, then," Keel said to Rei, his face now in a stony expression. "If that is what you talk back to us, and assuming that you are Yui Saint-Clair in that mortal shell of yours… then prepare, you accursed heretics, to _die tomorrow_, that at the break of dawn, from land, sea and air you will be utterly annihilated by our arms until all of what is left of this place is a howling wilderness… all the while we achieve total Instrumentality!"

With that final word echoing, Keel and the monoliths vanished into the darkness, and then a few seconds later the lights came on.

* * *

Still standing in the middle of the communications room and even with the rest of the council watching him, Keel tried to calm himself down by breathing in deeply, knowing that even the slightest hint of extreme emotion could trigger a problem within his system.

Helpfully an acolyte in robes came to him with a glass of water and a bottle of pills on a tray, as though he could be suffering from hypertension, but without warning the old man slapped away the tray, its contents smashing onto the floor.

"But, Master…" the shaken acolyte said nervously as he picked up the debris.

Keel glared at the acolyte, with his teeth clenched. "_Scheisse! _I don't need it!" he hissed.

As if to calm him down, Evgenyi walked up to his friend and placed a hand on Keel's shoulder.

"My friend," Evgenyi said. "Take it easy."

"I'm trying… Damn that Nagisa. Damn them all…" Keel cursed between breaths.

Evgenyi nodded. "I know, but please give yourself a breather," he said before turning to the rest of the council. "I insist that we should be left alone."

Understanding this, everyone else went out of the room until there was only Keel and Evgenyi, and it took some minutes before the German was able to regain his composure.

"Why do you need to be angry when we still have the advantage?" Evgenyi asked.

Keel shook his head, face partially covered by a palm. "I'm sorry, my friend," he whispered. "I've slipped this time… I should've held myself instead of doing such an outburst."

"That is all right. We sometimes commit mistakes beyond our control."

"Yet with this case, we shouldn't err as humans," Keel said. "But you're right; I forgot that we are one step further than they do."

"Do you have a decision this time?"

Keel turned to face Evgenyi.

"Yes," the old man said. "As scheduled, we shall bring down the hammer: smite them all on the anvil."

* * *

Back in Japan, everyone in the room felt uneasy, with the complete lack of elation and relief, and grimly knowing that the die has been finally cast, that SEELE will be coming tomorrow with Armageddon onto their doorstep.

"So he has confirmed what he thought is your divine lineage," Fuyutsuki said to Shinji, who was standing besides him.

The young man nodded. "Do you think they're all true? Is he telling the truth?"

Fuyutsuki sighed. "Along with the facts he presented to us, Lorenz has given the other piece of the puzzle," he said. "Whatever he said answered my lingering suspicions about your mother for years, as to why she is held in very high regard."

"Just like Mary Magdalene," Shinji said. "I didn't know she was that important."

"Yes," Fuyutsuki answered. "As much as the truth has dispelled our long-standing misconceptions shaped by time, myth and history, what we have to be concerned the most now is how far we could hold them back before they could take control of Unit One."

On one hand, Shinji thought, Unit-01 was powerful than any of her sisters within the NERV inventory, thanks largely to the ingested S2 Engine, and could hold onto her own in combat.

But at the same time her very immense power source makes Unit-01 a very attractive target that SEELE will want to capture at all costs, which meant there had to be a way to slow down the Mass-Production Evas, if not stop them, without having to depend too much on both Evas alone.

"Sir… what are we going to do next?" Shinji finally asked.

"Prepare, plan and practice, and then tomorrow we'll have to take the whole brunt of their war machine as they come," Fuyutsuki replied. "For them, I fear that there will be no prisoners this time."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** This chapter completes the nebulous mysteries surrounding Yui Ikari Saint-Clair, answering the questions about her unique and powerful standing within the LW alternate universe (and hence departing from established Eva canon, which, despite depicting Yui as a very important woman, never gave an explanation about her little-known origins).

While doing my research for this fic, I stumbled upon the intriguing idea of indelibly linking Yui with Mary Magdalene by purported divine lineage and importance, having been inspired by my readings of thought-provoking books such as _Holy Blood, Holy Grail _and_ The Templar Revelation _(both of which became the basis for the best-selling novel _The Da Vinci Code - _but no offense, _Digital Fortress_, however erroneous it may be, is my _only_ dog-eared favorite among Brown's works).

I tried my best to summarize the Herculean amount of information provided by those books into a few paragraphs, but I hope they suffice, yet should this chapter leaves you doubting with more questions or you feel I err in some parts (writing a fic invites a few author-inspired liberties to make a few plot twists), I suggest that _HBHG_ and _Revelation_ be read for further clarification, for the _Da Vinci Code_ can be erroneous at times.

Going back to the story at hand (and this being an extension of the final meeting between SEELE and Gendo), and as I have envisioned, this is the first time Keel and Shinji confront each other (almost) in person, and that the former tries to tempt the young man to give up resistance and embrace the purported rewards of Instrumentality, which Shinji then refuses because of the terrifying apocalyptic possibilities it could bring upon the world's inhabitants.

Until next time. _J'ai ose._


	47. Questions and Answers

_Oh, where oh where can my baby be?  
The Lord took her away from me  
She's gone to heaven, so I got to be good  
So I can see my baby when I leave this world._

- Wayne Cochran, _Last Kiss_

* * *

His eyes flew wide open at first, but everything looked like a blur; completely disoriented, he had no sense of time or space, but he tried to squint and focus slowly until the first conscious thought came to him: _where are my glasses?_

Instinctively his hands darted out, scrabbled over the bedside tables, trying to find them, but no, there weren't any bedside tables, or for that matter, he wasn't in his bedroom. His nose sniffed the air; it smelled dank and cold.

No, his bed was made out of hard foam encased in cotton fabric, and that he can now see the concrete-gray ceiling.

The shock of reality now came to him with the sudden intensity of a bomb dropped over his head.

He was in jail.

More precisely, inside the jail cell of Number One Stockade of NERV Security Forces Group, behind carbon-steel bars and reinforced concrete a foot thick on three sides.

Worse, he felt that his left hand was tightly wrapped in something, so he lifted it up to find bandage covering up much of his palm, where Adam was once used to reside.

Now all of his memories suddenly came back rushing with a vengeance, including the last scene he witnessed before blacking out.

Indeed, Fuyutsuki had Adam surgically removed from his hand, and it hit Gendo Ikari right in the gut that it made him stand up on the cot and look around his surroundings before focusing on his garments, which was nothing but a prisoner's cotton jumpsuit.

He was no longer the Commander but a powerless inmate stuck in the very same cell where less than 12 hours ago, here he consigned Fuyutsuki and many others for trying to conspire against him.

It made him furious, sick to the stomach that he had no choice except to vent his ire by repeatedly pounding his other functional hand, formed into a fist, on the mattress while muttering profanities in a display of rage he had never expressed in years.

Whatever hopes and dreams he had were finally dashed in this dark jail cell, even as the lone video camera installed on the ceiling monitored his angry fit.

* * *

**END OF EVANGELION: **_**BLOOD AND WATER  
THE FINAL SEASON  
**_CHAPTER 47: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS / BETWEEN FATHER AND SON  
An alternate path fanfiction by soulassassin547  
Written on 9/26/2012 19:02 a9/p9

* * *

As they walked out of the communications room, after Fuyutsuki said that they'll have lunch, Shinji didn't know what else to say except an avalanche of questions came crashing upon him, as to how and why his mother came to assume prime importance in his father's life, and then he wondered, _Did he intended to marry her? For what good?_

He watched Fuyutsuki briefly converse with General Yamamoto and some others before they bid goodbye to work on their preparations for the eventual battle, before they walked on to the direction of the elevator doors.

_I don't understand except… Was he really that mad? Was all of this worth the ambition?_

Shinji sighed, but then his hand found itself clasping with Asuka's.

"I don't know what else to say," the girl said. "Either that old man's bullshitting or he's telling us the truth."

"Mother," Shinji said.

"All of what he said had occurred before, from what I heard about, with that old fart linking you with… Jesus. I mean, it's still far-fetched, there's no solid proof that He ever managed to survive after being crucified."

Shinji shook his head, the burden of information weighed against his mind. "I'll never know. It's too overwhelming."

* * *

Just a couple of meters abreast, Fuyutsuki and Misato were discussing about Lorenz's allegations. Though the hologram images looked authentic, both of them doubted the veracity of the old man's facts.

"Do you think all of that is possible?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"It's too unlikely," Misato said. "I mean, sir, anyone can make up a story on paper or parchment, even if it's a couple of millennia old."

"I believe that, thousands of years ago, the human mind, conditioned to superstition and the supernatural, will believe in anything presented as fact. Religious relics are one of several examples; these are highly venerated by the common folk as miraculous and coming from holy men, even if there's no definitive proof of their authenticity, and more likely manufactured by those in the know."

"Isn't there's some books that debate over the divinity of Christ?" Ritsuko said as she walked up.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Of course, with some trying to prove or disprove, but it all comes down to a matter of faith."

"Ikari himself may have to explain as to how and why he came up with this in the first place," Misato said. "There has to be a motive, a reason for madness."

Just then Hamamoto came up to Fuyutsuki's side, with a phone in hand, said, "My boys got Ikari's room secured and the safe cracked open. I've ordered them to bring out anything that can be used as evidence."

Fuyutsuki and everyone else paused in mid-stride. "What?" he asked.

"They've got tons of documents," Hamamoto said. "The whole nine yards, everything from his journals, to memos… well, enough to implicate."

Again, Hamamoto's phone rang, cutting him off, prompting the director to converse with a subordinate on the line, before he returned to Fuyutsuki.

"Well?" he asked. "What else?"

"Ikari is awake now," Hamamoto said. "Unfortunately they had to restrain him down because he was throwing a serious fit in the cell. Anyway, if you wish to talk to Ikari, I'll give orders for them to bring him to the interrogation room."

Grimacing, Fuyutsuki turned to Misato and Ritsuko, but Shinji and the other Children looked surprised.

"Father's awake?" the boy asked.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes."

"Can I speak to him?"

The former professor thought of this for a moment, before he made a decision.

"I think you have the right to listen as much as I do," he said, "because whatever he says could put your doubts to rest once and for all, and could also decide our fate, so come with us."

"Thank you, sir," Shinji said, nodding and then turned to Asuka. "I have to go."

"It's okay," Asuka said, watching him walk over to Fuyutsuki and Hamamoto.

"Are you ready for this?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Yes," Shinji answered. "I regret nothing."

Fuyutsuki then focused his attention to the two women. "The rest of you," he said. "Go ahead and have lunch without us, then head to the testing room. We'll catch up later."

Misato saluted. "Yes, sir."

"And Akagi," Fuyutsuki added. "Put Nagisa through the wringer. You and your people know what to do."

Ritsuko nodded. "It'll be done, Professor."

* * *

Outside, while the rest of his tank squadron were busy setting up their firing positions, Sergeant Taro Miyazawa went about checking his Type-10's electronic fire control system, just a couple of feet away from the 120mm L44 smoothbore cannon.

He eyed the total loadout on the multifunction LED panel, which gave him a tally of thirty kinetic-energy HEAT rounds sitting in the loading bin; these were the same type of munitions used in the American M1A1 Abrams, but manufactured locally under license as part of the Mutual Defense Treaty.

The 48-ton Type-10 main battle tank was built as a stronger successor to the Type-90, with greater emphasis on selectable firepower, armored protection, speed (up to 70 kilometers per hour), automation and connectivity, all the while having to meet strict standards as not to ruin pavement.

The autoloader system also allowed for a smaller crew, and provides them greater freedom to concentrate on the fighting than worry about mechanical reliability and timing.

Miyazawa sighed in satisfaction, knowing that his tank was well-prepared for the task, but for the first time his unit would soon be engaged in battle.

Then he thought of the last thing he needed to do before lunch, so with his fingers Miyazawa reached in the insides of his left breast pocket, fished out a laminated picture of singer-actress Atsuko Maeda, which he kept for years after she graduated from AKB48, and using a roll of duct tape, he stuck the picture next to the MFD panel.

To her portrait he then whispered reverently, "Acchan… Watch over me, just as we'll have to fight soon on your behalf."

* * *

The interrogation room was bare, finished in non-gloss white and with one side of the wall faced with one-way glass – the observation mirror – save for a folding table and four seats; on the table, the obligatory pitcher of water and two stainless-steel tumblers, a pad and a pencil, and a telephone.

Sitting on a folding chair and facing Fuyutsuki, and with Hamamoto and Shinji watching behind the mirror inside the observation room, Gendo Ikari looked very much the defrocked prophet who once envisioned the inevitability of Instrumentality, now dressed in a jumpsuit, with his ankles cuffed with manacles, wearing a morose face with slatted eyes that stared at the white vinyl tiles beneath his slipper-sheathed feet.

Behind Gendo was a pair of BDU-garbed guards standing, parade-rest position; they were present to restrain him with strong-arm should Gendo decides to behave the wrong way.

However, in this situation Gendo looked bitterly defeated and thus accepted his fate.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

"No, but how are you feeling?" Fuyutsuki questioned instead, with a tone that implied an attempt to understand than provoke hostility.

Gendo looked down at his left bandaged palm. "What have you done?" he asked.

"It is my prerogative, I'm afraid to say, that I must protect you from yourself."

Ikari sighed again. "This is my dream… and you took it away," he said.

"You may call Instrumentality a dream for you to achieve," Fuyutsuki said, "but what of this world? Do you even _care_ if it could possibly jeopardize the balance of life and of this universe?"

Instead of a characteristic outburst, Gendo said nothing, so Fuyutsuki decided to tone down his voice.

"I'm sorry," he said. "This is the only way for me to save you from your madness, to bring you back to reality."

"What else?" Gendo asked, apparently wishing to change the subject.

"Let's be frank for the first time," Fuyutsuki said. "It's just you and me now."

Gendo nodded.

In a seemingly sympathetic tone, Fuyutsuki said, "I haven't asked you about this for a very long time, but what made you decide to pursue Metabiology?"

The elder Ikari took a breath, and answered, "In the beginning, I had no interest in anything else, except trying to escape the mediocrity of family life."

And so he began to tell his untold story.

* * *

Back in the early 1980s, in the days when Japan rode on its economic success, with the bubble burst unforeseen and still far away, Gendo was the only son between a father who worked late and sometimes came home drunk, and a mother who kept on being faithful despite some nights when they bickered and she had to suffer the blows.

Yes, he could still remember the miasma of his father's alcoholic breath, the old man degenerating into a spiral of alcoholism, finding empty bottles in drawers, wastebaskets, the kitchen sink and even in the miniscule bathtub.

The old man was obsessed at trying to work hard, even to the point of dressing up with painstaking detail, but intentionally forgetting that he had a family to give more time. As Gendo grew up, he realized that his father married his mother out of convenience, that is, just to make her pay attention to his needs as he went to and came back from work: serve him beer, wash and iron his clothes, fix his bed, and even give him a blowjob without intercourse.

Yes, she did all of that, and then the occasional flare-up of domestic violence, their shouting filling up the house (and never a home) that Gendo, sickened by the chaos of flying pans and shattering dishes, obliged himself to escape through the door without them paying attention, and wander in the streets until everything was settled by the time he came back at two in the morning.

Alone on the streets, Gendo would find himself picking fights with other rival gangs, closed-fist white-knuckle battles, with him earning cuts and bruises, but sometimes he would lose in skirmishes and would be left lying unconscious on the concrete, but only Gendo had the animal brutality that instilled fear and respect among those who came across his path.

But violence and being feared weren't the only things that consisted of Gendo's personality, for instead of resorting to truancy, and to wean himself away from dysfunctional family life, he paid more time studying without needing anyone's help; at the local library he found himself buried in books until closing time, or hanging around at the bookstore, browsing every tome for anything that might be of interest for him.

Until Gendo came across a bunch of books concerning about ancient secrets and supposed secret societies, cabals who possessed absolute power to manipulate and shape the destinies of nations; the books painted pictures of secretive men presiding over councils, discussing and deciding the fate of any individual, group, society, even whole governments and militaries, twisting all of them according to their needs like sheep being herded to anywhere they wished.

Tantalized with the possibility of wielding unthinkable power, the books gave him an idea: _Why I can't be somebody? Why I can't forge my own destiny?_

* * *

"That was what I told myself," Gendo said, his hand placed over a tattered paperback Japanese copy of _Holy Blood, Holy Grail._ "That was when I began to search something that I can use, in order to show the world what I could do to utterly change it, the idea of power in my hands."

A guard had already carted in one of several boxes consisting of Gendo's personal papers and books, all of which became the basis of his personal drive to seize Instrumentality. On the table there was now a pot of steaming green tea, two small cups, and a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and an ashtray.

"Even if possessing that power means you tampering with the fabric of time and space?" Fuyutsuki asked, his hand cradling a cup full of tea.

Gendo nodded before he leaned forward.

"When the history of man comes to an end," he said. "I'm supposed to act as a savior from God… Yet, I don't need His salvation but I seek vengeance upon that deity, nor I wish to be reborn as His child."

"You wanted to be a demigod?"

"No," Gendo disagreed. "I want to _become_ God; I want myself to _replace_ God so that I will never lose anything again."

Fuyutsuki looked unconcerned. "It makes sense that you decided to become a geneticist."

"Exactly, for through the manipulation of genes there is greater power inherent in such an act than launching nuclear weapons; ultimate power is thus found in creation than destruction."

"You mean the power over life and death, and the possibility of conquering death?"

"That was what I sought for, the mythical Tree of Life, but then Lorenz had the means to make that possible."

Fuyutsuki took a sip of his tea, and then asked, "Is that why you decided to find Yui?"

"Yes," he said. "Her father had access to Lorenz."

"How did you know much about her?"

"The _Dossiers Secrets_ provided me the answer, and from there I found a way to insinuate myself into the power structure."

* * *

The _Dossiers Secrets_, or more precisely _Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau_ or _Secret Files of Henri Lobineau_, was a 27-page document compiled by Philippe Toscan du Plantier and deposited in the Bibliotheque nationale de France in the 1960s. Despite questionable authenticity, the document attempted to prove that the Plantards and the Saint-Clairs were the legitimate royal blood of France, and thus included genealogy diagrams to link the family back to Dagobert II, the Merovinginan king of France.*

While researching on the Internet, Gendo discovered scanned copies of the _Dossiers_, and then perused the translations to know where to find. To his surprise, he found that the eldest scion of the prominent Saint-Clair family had married a Japanese national, and produced a daughter named Yui. Gendo went about tracing the whereabouts of this young woman, and conveniently she was studying in Kyoto University.

Naturally, Gendo decided to wait for an opportunity, and then one day he found Yui struggling with the vending machine, trying to get her drink out. He offered help, took out the can and gave it to her, before introducing himself.

Despite his questionable, dangerous reputation, Gendo was personally astounded that a sophisticated, blue-blooded woman like Yui would fall for him, but even then he had to go through her gauntlet by coming clean, forswearing street brawling and drinking and turning his energies to further study, himself a ferocious beast tamed by a beautiful nymph.

Later, upon his graduation he found himself approached by one of Keel's representatives, offered him a lucrative job on the spot, and accepted it. Again, he was impressed by Yui's capacity to pull strings for his benefit.

From there, and as a geneticist, Gendo had to make a good impression on Keel, doing his best to integrate himself into the SEELE power structure on a step-by-step basis, until he came far into the nomenclature that sooon he came face to face with the enigmatic man who had the world in his pocket.

* * *

Inside the observation room, Shinji and Hamamoto were eating ramen as they watched and listened to the conversation at the other side of the one-way mirror.

"Definitely your father had planned all of this from the beginning," Hamamoto said as he put down his bowl on the table.

Shinji nodded as he slurped the noodles, but then noticed the video camera mounted on a tripod. "Sir, is that camera running?"

"Yes," Hamamoto said. "Everything he says will be used as evidence."

"I never thought he began all of this from an idea," Shinji said. "Heck, I haven't even met my grandparents."

Hamamoto sighed. "I personally checked your father's background, and from what I remember, regrettably both of his parents are now dead."

Shinji set down his now-empty bowl on the table. "I certainly wouldn't last long if I were in his place."

"I think you're lucky he wasn't your role model, and probably never will," Hamamoto said. "Living in a dysfunctional family can either make or break a man, to build character into a hero or create a monster. You see, in your father's case, he was trying to find an identity for himself, he wanted to run away, to turn a new leaf… except he was also driven by ambition, wanting to become what he couldn't be."

Shinji shrugged. "I simply wanted to live a normal life."

"Good," Hamamoto agreed. "Are you ambitious?"

"No, I'm not, sir."

"Then I hope you'll live a better life after this."

"What about you?" Shinji asked.

"Me?" Hamamoto replied. "When this is over, I'm retiring for good, and I mean, my doctor said that I have to check on my stress levels."

"You mean you're becoming tired?"

Hamamoto shook his head. "No, not like that, son," he said. "If I push myself too hard I could suffer myself a coronary or something, as I'm still trying to cut down my intake, like watching what I eat, drink or smoke."

"But, sir, you still look fine."

The older man looked up at the glass. "Tomorrow… I don't know what's going to happen to me, or to my family, or to all of us. Even with our best planning and preparations, anything can happen. We could win the day or lose altogether."

"Like being killed."

Hamamoto looked thoughtful. "This morning," he said. "I thought about my life and what fate I could be meeting soon. I've seen everything; I lived a life that I tried my best to make it worthwhile, all the while I fought my little wars, losing some, winning some, and yes, I've grown damn old enough that I don't think death should be feared."

"I see," Shinji said.

"Son," Hamamoto said. "The great beauty of life is that only if you're not ambitious or afraid or greedy or vain or having any of those defects of the material world, you realize that simplicity makes mortal life more meaningful while we exist on this planet. You have friends not because you have riches or power or strength, but because you seek companionship, warmth and trust, and that you prove your friendship by returning them with an equal favor."

Shinji nodded.

"Another thing I'd like to ask."

"Sure, why not, sir?"

"You're steady with Asuka now?"

The young man chuckled. "Yes."

Hamamoto grinned. "You two study hard till you finish getting your degrees, and then get hitched and create a family. You certainly don't want to be like your old man."

"Nope, I'm not going to be."

"In case I die before we win," Hamamoto said. "You have the power to begin a new age, and tell the world that they should never forget this accursed folly of madmen, as a burning reminder to rebuild humanity and create a paradise on earth without the sins and cruelty of the past… without want, malice, fear, or hunger."

"But everyone can't depend on me," Shinji said. "I'm just a boy."

"Yeah, son, and I know you're not a god, except only after this," Hamamoto said. "You and Asuka, and your friends, or for that matter, your generation and the next, will have to start from scratch, without shitty self-destruction. However, all of that will not be possible unless if you, the _Married Couple_, must first win tomorrow's damned battle."

* * *

"…and so in order to pursue your agenda, you decided to sell yourself out to Keel, right?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"I have to," Gendo answered. "He has the means, for after all he discovered the power that created life on this world. So I helped him unlock the mysteries to Adam, and whatever I found indelibly were linked to ancient texts that they kept for centuries, confirming those secrets as real than mythical."

"That explains why, in trying to bring back Yui, you decided to take Keel's plans and make them your own."

Gendo stared at Fuyutsuki right in the eye and said, "I say again, I never wanted to lose and I want her back. Instrumentality is the only way to make it possible."

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Lorenz used us all for his ends, sold us out, and tomorrow he'll make his promise true."

"He said that?"

"Yes, and he shall bring Instrumentality right on our doorstep, which is why we're preparing for the worst, and if possible, stop him."

Gendo looked down and stared at his bandaged hand. "The initiative should have been mine…" He then looked up to Fuyutsuki and shouted, "WHERE'S ADAM?"

The elder Ikari slammed his right fist on the table, and the sudden outburst provoked the guards to step forward quickly, ready to grab Gendo. But their charge never rose from his seat, and seeing this, Fuyutsuki raised his hand, telling them to stand down.

It's OK, everything's under control.

"That creature has now been kept safe from you," Fuyutsuki said coolly, surprisingly unfazed by Gendo's explosion of anger, watching the guards step back and resume their positions.

Ikari was breathing heavily through his clenched teeth. "What?"

"You have to restrain yourself. Whether it's you or Lorenz, either both of you could hasten the end of human existence as we know it."

"I don't care. I want Yui back."

"But… Does bringing her back would make you or her happy, at the price of sacrificing humanity? Would it make your life more meaningful?"

Gendo said nothing, looking sullen without having anything to contradict.

"If I were you, I would've accepted her fate a long time ago, and move on with life."

"I just can't. She's the only one that matters much for me, even if I have to fight against the world."

Again, Fuyutsuki shook his head, finding Gendo's stubbornness a hard, brick wall where any attempts at persuasion ended in futility of hurled water-filled balloons exploding on that wall.

This now meant changing to a different tack.

"Yui isn't here anymore in this plane of existence, but Shinji is the only family you have right now," he said.

Gendo looked away, as if to ignore the former professor, before he slowly buried his face upon open palms.

"When I'm with Shinji, I only hurt him," he said in a bitter tone, almost a whisper but trying to make his words heard just enough for Fuyutsuki to hear. "So, for me now… it's better that I do nothing."

There was a moment of silence between the two men, before Fuyutsuki, for the first time in years since he left the waterfront slums at Gendo's behest, reached out for the pack of cigarettes and the lighter, shook out a stick and lit up. Trying to remember how to inhale, on the first puff he coughed loudly, prompting the guards to come to assist him, thinking that he could collapse from asphyxiation, but he waved them off as he got the routine right even as he was seeing stars.

"You want to smoke?" Fuyutsuki offered after a minute, pushing the pack and lighter across the table.

Gendo didn't move for a second or two, and then begrudgingly he turned around, tapped the pack for a stick and put the tip to the butane flame.

Soon the room was filled with wisps of smoke.

"What changed your mind?" Fuyutsuki asked, as he carefully puffed.

"I'm afraid of him," Gendo admitted, referring to Shinji.

"Why?"

"I'm not worthy of love because… I don't believe that I can be loved by others."

"Except you gave everything for Yui?"

The elder Ikari sighed. "Yes. She was what I cared for… she had everything that I didn't have, but no, not her wealth."

"You craved for her affection?"

Gendo nodded.

"It's understandable now, as you've said your parents gave you nothing but misery."

"Yes."

"From what I heard, your son wanted your affection, attention… everything just to make him feel happy as if he's like any other kid in the world, with caring parents. But you decided not to, so all the time you shut away your heart."

Fuyutsuki pulled a drag, and added, "Instead we became his surrogate parents and siblings. We tried our best to provide him a substitute in your absence, but I understand he wanted you to be his only father."

"It's too late," Gendo said tersely. "I'll die anyway."

"No, it's never. Not while you're still living."

"Impossible."

The old man decided that figuratively he'll have to transport both of them back to Kyoto, and so he took on a professorial tone.

"Listen to me," he said. "You'll always be my student, so you still have a chance to learn again."

Gendo said nothing.

"I teach everyone and grade them all," the old man said, snuffing out the cigarette into the ashtray. "I tried my best, but should they fail, I give them a fair chance by making up at the next semester, even if they repeat the course all over again."

"Why are you saying this?"

"I am not a god," Fuyutsuki said as he poured himself another cup of tea. "I'm just a fallible human being who understands how much it takes for someone to redeem himself. So, which is greater, a man born pure and holy, or a man who takes the hardest effort to cleanse himself of sin, to wean himself away from his dark upbringing and into enlightenment? Think about it."

Fuyutsuki then drank, before standing up from his seat.

"I'll give you a few minutes to reflect," he said, but paused and added, "Also… do you wish to talk to your son?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the synchro test facility, Ritsuko was standing right behind her workstation, which was at the moment connected directly to the MAGI. Outside the control room, she could see Kaworu's Entry Plug, half-immersed in coolant, and the top of the Plug had hundreds of cables and hoses connected.

Below the surface of the coolant pool was one of three remaining simulation bodies that managed to escape unscathed by a microbial Angel attack months before, as they were stored separately at the time. The simulation bodies themselves were leftovers from early attempts at creating the Evas; biologically they resemble and function like the real thing, except they were all headless and limbless.

Standing besides her was Asuka, watching everything intently. She was hoping to learn much from Kaworu, as she hasn't seen him practice in the simulator.

Not far from them was Misato, sitting on a chair, right behind Maya, who was busy readjusting the system parameters; Rei likewise was sitting alongside the older woman, nursing her cup of tea and watching quietly.

There were also a dozen more technicians in the control room, all making final adjustments; their fingers clacking on the keyboards, eyes alternately looking down at the pool below and going back to their monitors.

On one of the displays providing a video feed from the Plug interior, Kaworu was clad in his black-and-blue Plug Suit, calmly sitting in the cockpit, breathing in the fresh infusion of oxygen in LCL that filled up the inside three minutes ago.

"Okay," Ritsuko said into the microphone. "Listen up."

Kaworu nodded.

"For now, you'll have to undergo a harmonics test, which means that we have to establish a initial baseline datum for an hour or so before you, Shinji and Asuka have to dance together on the floor."

"What?"

"Sorry," Ritsuko apologized before she chuckled. "I mean, you'll go up against two of them, and that's when we'll start recording your combat data, and then use the data to create nine simulacrums of those MPs."

"I see," Kaworu said. "What about the data last time?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "Nope, I don't think they'll apply. Instead we'll have to make you go through a fine comb this time, with more data points to build up a clear and accurate picture of your fighting capacity so that the MAGI can use all of this to construct a near-exact replica of the Dummy Plug."

"What about you?"

"While you sit right there, we'll have to code the whole recording program from scratch, which should be able to obtain your brain waves while all three of you go through the practice session, mano-a-mano. By the way, for the dress rehearsal, we'll be using the initial build data from Unit Four, which was supposed to be your assigned Eva."

"Yes," Kaworu said. "And… How long that rehearsal would take?"

"Asides from sparring," Ritsuko said. "All three of you will also have to do some serious target practice with simulated Angels, which would take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour, with five to ten minutes per round, and three minutes for a breather after five rounds. I'll have to throw every possible battle scenario that should be able to stimulate your brain hard enough and generate lots of neural activity. As if it's not enough, I'll set the enemy AI difficulty at the highest possible level. Is that clear?"

"Roger," Kaworu agreed as he softly tugged the butterfly controls and squirmed a bit in his seat for comfort.

"Only then you'll spar against that married couple, nine against two… Any further questions?"

Kaworu shook his head. "No."

"Okay, then," Ritsuko said, "Let's get started."

* * *

Shinji walked into the interrogation room, uncertainty and discomfort marked on the young man's face, as he was shivering inside, but steeling himself to prepare for their very first conversation since his father's arrest and detention.

The young man then sat down on the empty folding chair, facing Gendo, the former Commander looking glum and bitter.

Now father and son were trying to find the right words to initiate the exchange. The old man could also feel the tension in the air, and then Gendo was the first to speak.

"I've must failed, right?" he said, speaking in a low voice.

Shinji blinked. "What?"

"You don't want to follow me, but otherwise you get going by listening to someone else other than me," Gendo answered. "Words that trigger your impulses to fight on their behalf, like 'I beg you', 'pilot it', 'I believe in you'…"

There was a three-word sentence that made Gendo pause for a moment, and Shinji noticed the older man's discomfiture, before saying with his willpower, "…and 'I love you'."

Deciding that picking up the bat and stepping up to the batting plate was better than warming the bench throughout the whole game in the dugout, Shinji said, "What's wrong with me fighting for them?"

Gendo sighed.

"I can't bring myself to love you as a son," he bitterly said. "Never felt love in my whole life."

"But what about Mother?" Shinji asked. "I thought you—"

"From the moment you came into this wretched world," Gendo said, interrupting, "your mother's affection for you made me jealous."

Shinji frowned. "What?"

Gendo leaned over the table, his eyes staring right at Shinji's, as if he wanted to make it damn clear and focused for him to understand the loss and the pain he had bottled up for years.

"Your mother was my salvation," Gendo said. "She was my support, my hope, the only person whom I can connect with after all the time I was denied affection but given hatred, chaos and pain, all the while I was then crawling on my knees in the darkness, so she's the only one I was able to thank God for that one piece of mercy given to me.

"I married her because… not because she was connected to SEELE and gave me everything I wanted, but yes, she also pulled me out of the quagmire of hell that was my old life."

Shinji was silent but listening, never taking his eyes off.

"Yet in a blink of the eye," Gendo went on, "she was taken away. Snuffed like a candle, which left me cursing God and asking why He had to give, but also to take away. So why? Why does He keep on doing this, the carrot-and-stick act? Is this a punishment for all mankind? Are we nothing but ants to be stepped on at His cruel leisure?"

"If I remember, we were taught that we came from dust, and soon will return to it," Shinji said, dimly recalling the words of a village priest not so long ago before coming to Tokyo-3.

"Nothing is permanent," Gendo said. "Everything in this world can be taken away. Soon Keel will have his victory and all mankind will be destroyed. That is why I have undertaken to create and build up this project, to seize that power to decide life and death, to beat God at His game."

Shinji shook his head.

"But I'm here," Gendo said. "I've lost that game. You're supposed to avenge your mother for me, to fight God, and yet—"

"God has _nothing to do with this_," Shinji said, cutting him off. "It began with a _man_, and so with this disaster coming tomorrow to destroy everything, we as humans will also have to stop it, right here."

"Keel is relentless," Gendo said, "which is why you have Unit One to control."

"I know."

"You should be able to comprehend why I created Project E, and at the same time my feelings. You'll pilot soon, but I have no hope for this world, and I still have my contempt for it."

A moment of silence settled on both father and son, letting the words sink in.

"Father," Shinji said.

"Yes?"

"I've learned many things," the young man said. "Kaworu was a good teacher to me, making me able to accept for what I am in this world, my purpose, and my reasons for living, and therefore I was also able to love myself, and to invest in hope."

Gendo said as if wounded. "Why do you have to put much of your faith in that Angel?"

"In the same way he was able to place his trust in humanity, rather than destroying them as he was supposed to do."

The older Ikari bitterly laughed. "Absurd," he chided. "He played you around like a fool. Even demons can quote the Bible if they wish to."

"I'm not bullshitting this," Shinji objected without humor. "What love he felt for Rei was real. Out of this love he chose to disobey Lorenz because of the hope he found in people, people who wish for a better world to live in than to escape from it."

"He could still betray you at the last minute," Gendo said, trying to contradict him.

"Kaworu was very sincere even to the point I almost killed him," Shinji said with conviction and clarity. "Now he willed himself to join the battle alongside us on our behalf, because I believe that unlike before he'll want humanity be given a fighting chance, and we have suffered enough for too long."

Internally, Gendo was shocked at Shinji's mature firmness and choice of words, something that he had not seen in him in years, leaving him to wonder if he had truly grown up, more than ever he could imagine.

"I understood my purpose in this world, and so you must," Shinji went on. "I'm not the son you used to look down. I used to hate myself, and think of running away; sometimes I wished to die just because I'm weak inside. I never wanted this being involved here and then, to pilot Eva, but now I have a reason to change, to think about life and its beauty all the while making it worthwhile."

"But…"

"I want to live and to love, because there's more to life than just Eva," Shinji said. "That'll be my reason to fight and defeat not God but a lunatic's delusion. Now if you really love Mother, if you want to take a stand, then I'm sure she'll love you more if you could just…"

Gendo can only stare at Shinji with distraught eyes, eyes that once used to be hidden behind amber, those eyes that were once cold, harsh and unforgiving, and even able to pass cruel judgment without a word.

For a second, Shinji hesitated as if to taste the words before speaking them out, with his eyes expressing a pleading need:

"Father, you have to learn _how to let go._"

* * *

As Kaworu silently sat in the Entry Plug, getting his harmonics checked over through the data acquisition phase, and while Misato and Ritsuko were talking over coffee, discussing about how to create a mock-up version of the Mass-Production Evas, Rei and Asuka were conversing about the confrontation at the holographic communications room.

"I expected a James Bond villain," Asuka said. "But… I don't know, except he's more like Doctor Evil."

"Who are they?" Rei asked.

"Oops, sorry," Asuka apologized. "I didn't know you're hardly into movies or pop culture, but simply put, James Bond is a fictional British spy who's called in to save the world from a bunch of baddies, while Doctor Evil is a villain from a movie called _Austin Powers_, and… if my memory serves me right, Doctor Evil was based on a Bond arch-enemy named Blofeld."

Rei nodded. "I see."

"Anyway, he looks damn old, as if he really saw the last world war, fought in it, and even now he still keeps himself standing even at that age without having to rely on a crutch. You think it's a bit odd?"

Rei shrugged. "I did not notice anything out of the ordinary."

"Must be that, given the amount of influence he wields, Lorenz probably had an alloy spine stuck into him, and with the visor he's wearing, more likely Lorenz is a cyborg, which may explain why he's into the Instrumentality Project."

"It makes sense for him trying to seek out immortality," Rei said. "But at what price? If his manner of speech and how he expresses himself were to be gauged, then I suppose that he is clearly bent on accomplishing what he truly wants."

"Sounds more like Shinji's father," Asuka said, "except the old fart is definitely a plutocrat, so if he can't rule over mortals in the physical world, why not rule in eternity, like _'better reign in hell than serve in heaven'_?"

"Who said that?"

Asuka looked up, as though she was thinking. "John Milton. The phrase came from _Paradise Lost, _and I heard it once in an English lecture back in college."

Rei nodded. "I see."

"In that phrase, there are those who feel they rather be in control, masters of everything no matter they'll do good or harm, than to be chafed and bound by rules imposed by a supposed omnipotent being who doesn't exist in the physical world; they prefer to rewrite everything to their whim, their rules or just plain anarchy."

"Yes, to be a demigod, if not God itself," Rei said. "It is an ultimate form of egomania and selfishness, hence very dangerous."

"Rules and laws exist because humanity is supposed to be on top of the food chain, and he should be bound by the difference between right and wrong, to differentiate himself from animals, and yet the more rules and laws are written and imposed, the more people choose to disregard them because they feel that too many laws makes their lives complicated and restrained; for those folks they would rather make profit and put the food on the dinner table."

"Laws were created to bring order from chaos," Rei said, "but never to cause burden. Yet through Instrumentality, it has become the intent of Lorenz to destroy God, by simplifying everything back to chaos, and thus promote devolution."

"Simply put," Asuka replied. "He's fucking power-mad that he thinks we should go down onto our knees and drink his Jonestown Kool-Aid, that is, _hara-kiri_ with fruit punch."

* * *

His father still not uttering a word since Shinji told him to let go, so the young man rose from his seat, as if being moved to urgency.

"I'm sorry, but I'm supposed to leave now," Shinji said. "We need to do a lot of practice."

"Practice?" Gendo asked, thus breaking his self-imposed silence.

"Yeah, we have to learn how to fight off Lorenz's army, which includes those fake Evas they could launch against us, the Mass-Production types, as Kaworu and Doctor Akagi told us about. They're supposed to be more advanced than anything we have here, but those Evas should have a weak spot or two… and I don't think I'll look at this as easy."

Shinji looked at the wall clock, and thought, _Still a few minutes to spare_. He then sat down again.

Gendo blinked. "I thought you're leaving?"

"Not yet," Shinji said. "Just a question about Mom… I still wonder why she fell for you back then, despite your personality."

The elder Ikari frowned, apparently uncomfortable with the question aimed at him as he racked his brain for an answer.

_I was an animal back then, a beast who longed to reach for the stars,_ Gendo thought. _I was feared, hardly liked, never loved… _

"I don't know," Gendo answered, distraught and unable to fathom any further. "I should have asked her a long time ago. Maybe she saw something in me that I couldn't understand."

"Or she should've told you the truth," Shinji said. "Mom fell in love with you for a very good reason."

"And what is it?" Gendo sounded skeptical.

"Since you said you had next to nothing, maybe Mom thought she saw the good inside your heart, and thus still worth saving as you were trying to swim but drowning instead, even if she might have been told everything to the contrary, like she didn't gave a damn but for you."

Shinji then stood up. "Call me wrong or naive," he said, "but there's enough time left to change your mind. Whatever crap you have done in the past, _you're still my father._"

The elder Ikari was instantly struck by those words. His arms suddenly sagged to the sides.

"But… You hate me," Gendo said in a pained tone, as if trying to punish himself. "Ritsuko hates me… everyone hates me. I am terrible, a _monster!_"

There was a momentary stillness as the last word echoed in their minds.

"No," Shinji disagreed calmly, head shaking. "Not this time, for I finally heard much about your story, knew the truth and everything fell into place. So I'm not running away from this, nor I'm closing my heart – soon I have to stand on this ground even if I could die trying."

Gendo sighed as he hung his head in dejection.

"You can go now," the older man said, voice almost cracking, cradling his face with palms, but not seeing Shinji walking up to the door.

"Thank you, Father," Shinji said, looking back but with a small, beatific smile. "I hope you'll understand this time as much as I did."

Once Shinji walked out of the room and closed the door, for the first time in years since twelve and brooding in his bedroom, the older Ikari was shedding tears for real, sobbing like a child now, as he didn't expect his son to be completely changed… and eloquent.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

*_in this manuscript, the origins and content of the controversial _Dossiers Secret_ were slightly altered for the fictional storyline. For more information, you can search it but caveat emptor, what you get might give you a mixed reaction._

Peeps… Forgive me for being this damn late, as it took me months since the last upload, thinking about writing this, looking for ideas on how to open this chapter, visualizing it, and in between complete disruptions and distractions (it ain't fun writing when being disrupted several times in a day when you actually wanted enough quiet time to think about prose before committing them to the drive), gone through several revisions while trying not to go overboard.

Until a friend posted this on Facebook about three weeks ago:

"_I have this feeling of dread that all the characters in my unfinished stories, all these characters I breathed life into but whose stories I never finished, they will one day come out to get me. So I must finish this one story. I must finish her story. So I would have at least one ally when the time comes that all my little darlings come out to kill me."_

That kicker got me off my ass, and now, this is it and I've done Numero 47, helped along with several albums worth of Two Steps from Hell.

As usual, comments and criticisms are welcome, and I'll try to answer them if possible.

Thank you guys... Now I have to set my mind on writing the next chapter, the one where I have to pit the "married couple" against Kaworu.

_J'ai ose._


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